Frenches International Copyrighted (in Engfland, her 

Colonies, and the United States) Edition of 

the Works of the Best Authors. 



t No. IJ5 I 



s 



THE RETURN OF THE 
PRODIGAL 



««^ * • . — - 

"S Copyright, 1907, by Samuel French 

'90 

<* ^^ 

4t> •♦• 

<it) CAUTION :— Professionals and Amateurs are hereby notified 

<€!} that this play is fully copyrighted under the existing laws of 

^i. the United States Government, and nobody is allowed to 

4^ do this play without first having obtained w^ritten 

"i^ permission of Samuel French, 24 W^est 22d St., 

<4t New York City, U, S. A. 

-•* 

«^ 



^ 



^ _ _ _ _ v» 



I H Come^p in jfour Bct0 

IS BY JJ 

t ST. JOHN HANKIN U 

T^ Ai:rHOR OK " IHK TWO MK. \V F-;TH KKBVS,'" "thE CH XKITV THAT ^ 

^ BKl^AN AT HOME," " I H E CASSHJS ENGAGEMEN I." ^ 



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^ Np:w York I London '^ 

4t S A M U E L F R E N C II | SAMUEL FRENCH , Ltd. % 

^ PUBLISHER j 26 Southampton St. vJ 

<i 24 WEST 22d STREET 1 STRAND * 

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FRENCH'S STANDARD DRAMA. 

Price 15 Cents each.— Bound Volumes $1.25. 



VOL. I. 
1 Ion 

t Fulo 

S Th« L»dy ot Lyons 

4 Richelieu 

( The Wife 

• The Honeymoon 

T The School (ot Scsndal 

8 Money 

VOL. If. 
t The Stranger 

10 (3r«udfather Whitehead 

11 Richard HI 

12 L(>ve'« Sacrifice 

13 The Ganietler 

14 A Cure for the Heartache 
1.', Tlie H.iiichback 

16 Dou Cifsar de Baian 

VOL. 111. 
1" The Poor (jentleman 
18 Hamlet 
lit Charles It 
JO VenicK I'reierved 
t\ Piiarro 
82 Tlie Love Chase 
n Othello 
24 Lrud me Five Shillings 

VOL. IV. 

85 Virginiin 

26 King of ihe Commons 

51 London Assurance 

S8 The Rent Day 

29 TwoGentleni^ii ofVerouR 

80 The Jealous Wife 
31 The Rivals 

82 Perfection 

VOL. V. [Debt 
R8 A New Way to Pay Uid 
84 Look Before You Leap 
36 King John 

86 Nervous Man 

81 Damon and Pythlaa 
88 Clandestine Marriage 
8« William Tell 

40 Day after the Wedding 

VOL. VI. 

41 Speed the Plough 

42 Romeo and Juliet 

43 Feudal Times 

44 Charles the Twelfth 

45 The Bride 

46 The Follies of a Night 

47 Iron Chest IFair Lady 
Never Won 



VOL. XL 
81 Julius C«»ar 
8J Vicar of Wakefield 
S'-i Leap Year 
84 The Cat^naw 
86 The Passing Cloud 

86 Drunkard 

87 Rob Roy 

88 George Barnwell 

VOL. XH. 

89 Ingomar 

90 Sketches in India 

91 Two Friends 
9 Jane Shore 
93 Corsican Brothers 
s»4 Mind your own Business 
9.^ Writing on the Wall 

96 Heir at Lavr 

VOL. XIIL 

97 Soldier's Daughter 
9- Dougla* 
99 Marco Spada 

1(1(1 Nature's Nobleman 
101 Sardanapalus 
10'.' Civilization 
l(l.S The Robbers 

104 Katharine and Petruchio 

VOL. XIV. 

105 Game of Love 

106 Midsummer Night 
,(17 Ernestine [Dream 

108 Rag l^icker of Paris 

109 flying Duichiiiau 
1 10 Hypocrite 

111 There?e 

1 12 La Tour de Nesle 

VOL. XV. 

113 Ireland As It Is 

114 Sea of Ice 

115 Seven ClerVs 

116 Game ofl.ife 

117 Forty Thirves 

118 Bryan Boroihme 

119 Roniaiue and Reality 
liO Ugolit.o 

VOL. xvr. 

n The Trnipest 
liJi The Pilot 
123 Carpenter of Rouen 
1 4 King's Rival 

125 Little Treasure 

126 Donibey and Son 
12" Parent* and Guardians 
\ii Jewess 

VOL. XVII. 

129 Camille 

130 Married Life 

131 Wenlock of Wenlock 

132 Rose of Etirickvale 

133 David CopperHeld 

134 Aline, or the Rose of 
Pauline ^Killarney 

136 Jane Eyre 

VOL. XVTU. 
.37 Night and Morning 
38 .Ethiop 
.<9 Three Guardsmen 

140 Tom Cringle 

141 lUnriette, the Forsaken 
42 Eustache Baudin 
13 Ernest Maltravers 

144 Bold Dragoons 
VOL. XIX. 

145 Dred, or the Dismal 

[Swamp 

146 Last Days of Pompeii 
117 Esmeralda 

148 I'eter \Vil«ins 

149 Ben the Boitswaln 

150 Jonathan Bradford 

151 Retribution 
163 Minerali 

VOL. XX. 



riage 



48 Faint Heart 
VOL. VH. 

49 Road to Ruhj 
to Macbeth 
61 Temper 
ti Evadn* 

63 Bertram 

64 The Du'nna 

65 Much A<lo About Nothing 

66 The C'ritlc 
VOL. VIII. 

«7 The Apoaate 
fc« Twelfth Night 
69 Bnitui 
«0 .Simpson A Co 

61 Merchant of Venice 

62 Old Heads* Young Hearts 
•3 Mountaineers [riage 

44 Three Weeks after Mar- 
VOL. IX. 

45 Love 

66 As You Like It 

67 The Elder Brotker 
»8 Werner 
69 Gisippus 

10 Town and Country 

11 King Lear 

12 Blue Devils 
VOL. X. 

18 Henry VHI 

14 Married and Slngl* 

15 Henrv IV 

16 Paul try 

17 Guy Mannering 

18 Sweethearts and WWes 

19 Serious Family 
80 Sue Stoops to Conquer 

{French's Standard Drama Continued on jd page of Cover.) 



1.53 French Spy 
154 Wept of W 



ish-ton Wish 

155 Evil Genius 

156 Ben Bolt 
161 Sailor of France 

158 Red Mask 

159 Life of an Actress 

160 Wedding Day 



VOL. XXI. 
61 All's Fair in Love 
162 Hofer 

63 Self 

64 Cinderella 
16.'> Phantom 

66 Kranlilin [Moscow 

67 The Gunmaker of 
ISSThe Love Ota Prince 

VOL. XXll. 
69 Son of the Night 
70RorvO'.More 

171 (iolden Eagle 

172 Rieiii/ 

173 Broken Sword 

74 Rip Van Winkle 

75 Isabel le 

176 Heart of Mid Lothian 
VOL. XXIII. 

177 Actress of Padua 

178 Floating Beacon 

179 Bride of Lammermoor 

180 Cataract of the Ganges 
IHl Robber of the Rhine 
182 School ol Reform 
18:1 Wandering Boys 

184 Mazeppa 
VOL. XXIV. 

185 Young New York 
ls6The Victims 

187 Romance after Ma 

188 Biigajid 

189 Poor of New York 

190 Ambrose Gwiiiett 

191 Raymond aiMl Agnes 
I9» Gaiiibler's Fate 

VOL. XXV. 
193K'ither and Son 

194 M issaniello 

195 Sixteen Siring Jack 

196 Youth inl Queen 

197 Skeleton Witne.^s 

198 Innkeeper of Abbeville 

199 Miller and his Men 

200 Aladdin 

VOL. xxvr. 

201 Adrienne the Actress 
•2(iJ Undine 
2(13 Jesse Brown 
204 Asinodeus 
-.'05 Mormons 

2Ufi Blanche of Brandywine 
2(17 Viola 
208 Deseret Deserted 

VOL. XXVll. 
09 Americans in Paris 
21(1 Victorine 

Wizard of the Wave 

212 Castle Spectre 

213 Horse-shoe Robinson 
Armand, Mrs. Mowatt 

21-1 Fashion, Mrs. Mowatt 

216 Glance at New York 
VOL. XXVHl. 

217 Inconstant 

218 Uncle Tom's Cabin 

219 lyiiide to the Stage 

220 Veteran 
Miller of New Jersey 

222 Dark Hour l»efore Dayvn 

223 Midsum'rNight'sDream 
[Liiura Keene's Edition 

224 Art and Artifice 
•VOL. XXIX. 

2^ Po<* Young Man 
»6^sslwattomie Brown 
227 E.«i« of Rome 
2»!8fc)liver Twist 

229 Pauvrette 

230 Man in the Iron Mask 

231 Knight of Arva 

232 Moll Pitcher 
VOL. XXX. 

288 Black Eyeil Susan 
■J'M Satan in Paris 
235 Rosina Meadows 
23t; West End, or Irish Hei 

237 Six Degrees of Crime 

238 The Lady and the Devil 

239 Aveni;er', or Moor of Sici- 

240 Masks and Faces [ly 



[ess 



VOL. XXXI. 

241 Merry Wives of Windsor 

242 Mary's Birthday 

243 Shandy Maguir* 

244 Wild Oats 
24.1 Michael Erie 

246 Idiot Witness 

247 Willow Copse 

248 People's Lawyer 

VOL. xxkii. 

249 The Boy Martyrs 

250 Lucretia Borgia 

251 Surgeon of Paris 

252 Patrician's D,<\ughter 

253 Shoemaker of Tonlous* 

254 Momentous Qoestioa 

255 Love and I^oyalty 

256 Robber's Wife 

VOL xxxin. 

257 Dumb Girl of Genoa 
Wreck Ashore 

259 Clari 

260 Rural Felicity 

261 Wallace 

262 Madelaine 

263 The Fireman 

264 Grist to the Mill 
VOL. XXXIV. 

265 Two Loves and a Life 

266 Annie Blake 

267 Steward 

268 Captain Kyd 

269 Ni.k of the Wood* 
2T0 Marble Heart 

271 Second Love 

272 Dream at Sea 

Vol. XXXV. 

Breach of Promise 

274 Review 

275 Lidvof theLake 

276 Stilf Water Runs Deep 

277 The Scholar 

278 Helping Hands 

279 Faust and Marguerite 

280 Last Miin 
VOL. XXXVT. 

281 Belle's Stratagem 
2i>2 Old and Young 

283 Raffaella 

284 Ruth Oakley 

285 British .Slf ve 
2'»6 A Life's Xansom 
287 Giralda 

Time Tries All 
VOL. XXXVIL 

Ella Rosenburg 
290 Warlock of the Glea 
?91 Zelina 

292 Beatrice 

293 Neighbor Jack wood 

294 Wonder 
95 Robert Emmet 

296 (ireen Bu»hes 

VOL. XXXVllL 
Flowers of the Forest 

298 A Bachelor of Arts 

299 The Midnitcht Banquet 
.300 Husband of in Hour 

301 Love'sM.abor Lost 

302 Naiad Queen 
?(I3 Caprice 
304 Cradle of Liberty 

VOL. XX XIX. 
.305 The Lost Ship 

306 Country Squire 

307 Fraud and its Victims 

308 Putnam 

309 King and Deserter 

310 La Fiammina 

31 1 A Hard Struggle 

312 Gwinnette Vaughan 
VOL. XL. 

313 The Love Knot [Judge 

314 Lavater, or Not a Bad 

315 The Noble Heart 

316 Coriolanus 

317 The Winter's Tale 

318 Kveleen Wilson 

319 Ivanhoe 

320 Jonathan lu Eugland 



SAMUEL FRENCH, a6 West aad Street, f^ew York City. 

New and Explicit Descriptive Catalosfue inailed Free on Request. 



THE RETURN OF THE 
PRODIGAL 

H Comebig In jfour Hcts 



BY 



ST. JOHN HANKIN 

AUTHOR OF "THE TWO MR. WETHERBYS " "THE CHARITY THAT 
BEGAN AT HOME," "THE CASSILIS ENGAGEMENT" 



Copyright, 1907, by Samuel French 



Caution: — Professionals and Amateurs are hereby notified that this play is 
fully copyrighted under the existing laws of the United States Government, 
and nobody is allowed to do this play without first having obtained 
written permission of Samuel French, 24 West 22d St., New York City, 
U.S.A. 



New York 

SAMUEL FRENCH 

publisher 

24 WEST 22D STREET 



London 

SAMUEL FRENCH, Ltd. 

26 Southampton St. 

STRAND 



LtttRARYufCOf^GBFsVf 
I wo GoDies ftweivcxj l 
OCT 24 i90/ 
Copyrirtf Entry 






Casf of the Original Production at the Royal Court 
Theatre, London, on September 25, 1905. 

Samuel Jackson Mr. J. H. Barnes. 

Mrs. Jackson Miss Florence Hay don. 

Henry Mr. Dennis Eadie. 

Eustace Mr. A. E. Matthews. 

Violet ; Miss Amy Lamborn. 

Sir John Farinqford Mr. Artluir Applin. 

Lady Faringford Miss Hilda Rivers. 

Stella Faringford Miss Hazel Thompson. 

Dr. Glaisher Mr. F. W. Permain. 

The Rev. Cyril Pratt Mr. Norman Page. 

Mrs. Pratt Miss Agnes Thomas. 

Baines Mr. Edmund Gwenn. 



THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL 



Scenes, 



ACT I. The drawing- room at Chedleigh. 
ACT II. Tlie breakfast-room at Chedleigh. 
ACT III. The lawn at Chedleigh. 
ACT IV. Same as Act I. 



persons of tbe (^ome^l?. 

Samuel Jackson Of Jackson, •Hartopp and 

Jackson, cloth-makers. A 
pompous man of 55. 

Maria His wife, fat, comfortable 

woman of 53. 

Henry .Their eldest son, partner in 

the Firm, 31. 

Eustace Their second son. The Ne'er- 
do-well, 29. 

Violet Their daughter, 28. 

Sir John Faringford, Bart.. A local magnate, 48. 

Lady Faringford His wife, 46. 

Stella Faringford .Their daugliter, 19. 

Dr. Glaisher The local medical man, 44. 

The Rev. Cyril Pratt The Rector, 60. 

Mrs. Pratt His wife, 54. 

Baines . Butler at the Jacksons'. 

Two Footmen. 



The action of the play takes place at Chedleigh Court, 
the Jacksons' house in Gloucestershire. Chedleigh, as 
everybody knows, has long been famous for its cloth mills. 



properties* 

ACT I. 

Baize. 

Carpet. 

2 pair blue silk curtains. 

6 skin rugs. 

Wliite mantelpiece. 

Gold overmantel. 

2 blue and white china jar8. 

2 silver candelabra. 

1 gold Louis clock. 

6 feet Chesterfield. 

Tapestry cushion. 

Bureau. 

1 small square occasional table. 

1 oblong inlaid occasional table. 

Grand piano. 

Stool for same. 

Revolving bookcase. 

Louis XV 4 -fold gilt screen. 

3 gilt armchairs. 

1 ordinary chair. 

Plants for fireplace. 

Palms for front of piano. 

Music sheets (on revolving bookcase). 

Fender and fire-irons. 

Electric light warning on piano. 

Red book (on bureau). 

Knitting in work-basket (on bureau). 

Silk handkerchief. 

Globe newspaper. 

1 footman's tray with 5 coffee cups, saucers and spoons. 

1 butler's tray with sugar basin and tongs, milk and 

cream jugs. , , • ^„ 

1 salver with tantalus containing brandy, glass jug con- 

taining water and tumbler. 
Smelling salts bottle. 



PROPERTIES. 5 

ACT II. 
Carpet, 1 pair Oriental curtains. 
Rugs, large oval breakfast table. 

1 tapestry cloth ; 1 white cloth, teapot, silver coffee-pot, 
milk jug, slop basin, sugar basin, 3 breakfast cups and 
saucers and spoons, o large knives and forks. 

3 small knives, 
3 large plates. 
3 small plates. 
Extra plates on sideboard. 

Fruit dish, toast rack, filled ; entree dish for cover con- 
taining eggs and bacon for three. 
Box of cigarettes, Standard newspaper, letters. 

2 cruets with spoons, 3 serviettes. 
Sideboard, 2 small bookcases. 

1 rosewood overmantel. 
1 brown fireplace. 

1 workshelf. 

2 armchairs, 3 ordinary chairs. 
Writing table with drawers. 

Stationery cabinet, blotting pad, music stand, large 
butler's tray with handles. 

1 crumb brush and tray for footman having on it one 
entree dish with cover containing eggs and bacon. 

1 large plaice, 1 toast rack, full ; 1 silver coffee-pot, 1 
serviette. 

Red book as in Act Ic 

Pictures. 

Ornaments. 

Cook's list. 

Graphic for V. C. 

Serviette ring. 

Sideboard cover. 

ACT III. 

Wicker-work table. 

Hammock. 

1 wicker armchair. 
5 wicker chairs. 

2 pairs blue silk curtains as in Act I, 








o 




THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 



ACT I. 



Scene : — The Jacksons' Drawing-room, a handsome 
room, suggests opulence rather than taste. Not 
vulgar hut not distinguished. Too full of furni- 
ture, pictures, IcnicTcknaclcs, chair covers, plants 
in pots. Too full of everything. There is a door 
up L. from hall. Fireplace l. further down stage 
with rather elaborate overmantel of wood painted 
white. A sofa sticks out square from wall L. above 
fireplace. Between it and door is a screen with a 
piece of drapery sloping over it. Below fireplace 
and nearest to footlights one of those upright 
Dutch writing tables with a front which lets down 
fiat when you want to write. It is open. In the 
centre wall two windows, curtains drawn as it is 
evening. Between them against wall writing table 
with chair in front of it, bach to audience. Up 
R. grand piano, the keyboard being at the end 
furthest from footlights. A small table stands by 
the side of the piano at the point where the body 

Note. The Stage Directions throughout this play are 
given from the standpoint of the audience, r. meaning 
the Audience's Right, l. the Audience's Left. 

7 



8 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

narrows. On this and on the piano itself are 
large pots of plants in flower, photograph frames 
and other inappropriate things. Below piano, 
between it and footlights and therefore mainly 
screening the player from the audience, a palm 
or two in tall pots. Below this a settee holding 
two. There are also plants in the fireplace, as 
it is summer and that is the Jacksons' conception 
of the proper way to adorn a fireplace and a suit' 
able place for growing plants. Easy chairs all over 
the place. The room is lighted by electricity but 
when the curtain rises only a few of the lights are 
turned on. 

(When the curtain rises the stage is empty. Then 
door opeiis l. and enter Lady Faringford, her 
daughter Stella, Mrs. Pratt, Violet Jackson, 
and, after an interval, Mrs. Jackson.) 

Mrs. Jackson, {without, in her loud cheery 
voice) You won't stay too long over your cigars will 
you, Samuel? {Entering and coming down) I al- 
ways notice the gentlemen stay far too long in tlie 
dining-room unless they're specially told not to. 
Now Lady Faringf ord, where will you sit ? Try this 
sofa. 

Lady Faringford. {sitting in corner of sofa l. 
furthest from fireplace) Thank you. 

Mrs. Jackson. That's right. Mrs. Pratt, where 
shall I put you? No, don't go there. That's such 
a long way off. Come here. {Drags up arm chair 
near Lady Faringford with hospitable inelegance) . 
(Mrs. Pratt sits) Are you all right, Stella? 



THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 9 

Stella, {who has taken place on settee r.) Quite 
thanks, Mrs. Jackson. 

Violet. Where will you go, mother? 

Mrs. Jackson. I'm going to sit here. Wait till 
I turn on some more light, (goes to door and does 
so) That's better ! 

(Mrs. Jackson takes seat hy Lady Faringford. 
Violet sits hy Stella and quietly begins to knit.) 
* Lady Faringford. I do envy you your electric 
light, Mrs. Jackson. Lamps are so troublesome. 
The servants are always setting themselves on fire 
with them. 

Mrs. Jackson, {comfortably) It is convenient, 
isn't it. 

Lady Faringford. How long have you had it? 

Mrs. Jackson. Only about eighteen months. 
We had it brought here at the same time that they 
were putting it in at the Mill. It seemed a pity not 
to as it was so close. And now I don't know what 
we should do without it. 

Mrs. Pratt. I saw it was all on at the Mill as we 
passed to-night. 

(Stella rises and goes up.) 

Mrs. Jackson. Yes. They can work much later 
now it's been put in. That was Henry's idea. It 
was almost impossible to work overtime profitably 
before on account of the light. Now the Mill often 
works night and day when there's a pressure. 

Stella. Surely the workmen must sleep some- 
times ? 

Mrs. Jackson. They have different sets of work- 



10 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

men I believe. But you must ask Henry. He knows 
all about it. 

Lady Faringford. Mr. Jackson seems pretty 
cheerful about his election prospects. 

Mrs. Jackson. Yes. I do hope he'll get in. It 
will be such an amusement for him. 

(Stella at top table.) 

Mrs. Pratt. It would certainly be most regret- 
able if Mr. Ling were elected. He is a dissenter. 
The Rector says a clergyman should have no politics 
but I say a clergyman with no politics is never made 
a bishop. 

Lady Faringford. I trust the Rector will not 
allow Mr. Ling to use the Parish Room for any of 
his meetings. 

Mrs. Pratt. I'm afraid he will. He says he can't 
make distinctions between the two parties. If he 
lends the room to one he must lend it to the other. 

Lady Faringford. Then he had better lend it to 
neither. That will answer the purpose quite well. 
For Mr. Jackson can easily hire some place for his 
meetings while Mr. Ling cannot. It is such a com- 
fort that all the rich people about here are Conserva- 
tives. 

(Stella at table.) 

But I believe the same thing may be noticed in other 
parts of the country. It almost seems like a special 
Providence. 

Mrs. Jackson. I hope Sir John thinks my hus- 
band will get in? 



THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 11 

Lady Faringford. Oh yes, I think so. It's un- 
fortunate that Mr. Ling is so popular. Only with 
quite vulgar people no doubt, Non-conformists and 
so forth. But even they have votes unfortunately. 
Still Mr. Jackson employs a large number of poople 
and they will vote for him of course— or what's the 
use of being an employer? And if he is sufficiently 
liberal with his subscriptions 

Mrs. Jackson. I believe my husband subscribes 
to everything. 

Lady Faringford. Then I'm sure he'll get in. 
It's a pity he won't have the Illingtons' support, by 
the way. 

(Enter Butler and Footman l. The footman first, 
carrying tray ivith five empty cups, then hutler with 
tray with coffee, cream and sugar.) 

They have a great deal of influence in their part of 
the county. 

Mrs. Pratt. (horrified) Surely Sir James 
hasn't turned Radical? 

Lady Faringford. No, no. Not so bad as that! 
But I hear he's quite ruined. His racing stable has 
cost him a fortune in the last few years and he's never 
won a single race. Braden will be to let in the 
autumn. 

Mrs. Jackson. Poor Sir James. He will feel 
parting with the place dreadfully. 

Lady Faringford. It's his own fault. He ought 
never to have made that absurd marriage. Mary 
Illington— she was Mary Tremayne, you know— one 
of the Wiltshire Tremaynes— hadn't a sixpence. 



12 THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 

What will become of that boy of theirs at Eton I 
can't think. They'll never be able to pay his school 
bills. 

Mrs. Jackson. Public schools are dreadfully ex- 
pensive, aren't they ? I remember when Eustace, my 
second boy, was at Harrow — Henry was never at a 
Public School — his bills were terribly high. 

Mrs. Pratt. I wonder whom we shall have at 
Braden. I do hope they will be Church people. The 
Scalebys, 

(Stella hj her mother.) 

who took Astley Park, play tennis on Sundays and 
seem to me to be little better than heathens. It sets 
such a bad example. 

Lady Faringford. The County is changing sadly. 
Half the old houses have changed hands and the new 
people are usually quite dreadful. If this sort of 
thing goes on there won't be a single person fit to 
speak to within twenty miles. 

(Pause.) 

Stella, (to Violet) What are you working at? 

Violet. A pair of socks for Old Allen. I always 
give him a pair for his birthday. That's about a 
month from now. 

Mrs. Pratt. I hope you and Mrs. Jackson have 
got a lot of things ready for the Mission Room Fund 
Bazaar, Violet? We want to clear off our debt and 
if possible have something in hand as well. 

Violet. Oh yes. I've done some things and so 
has mother. I'll send them up in a day or two. 



THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 13 

Mrs. Pratt. And thank you so much, Lady Far- 
ingford, for the embroidered tea cloth you sent. It 
is sure to sell ! 

Lady Faringford. Let us hope so. It's extremely 
ugly. I bought it at the Kettlewell sale of work last 
year intending to give it to my poor sister Adelaide. 
But afterwards I hadn't the heart. So I sent it to 
your bazaar instead. 

(Pause.) 

Mrs. Jackson. Vi dear, won't you play us some- 
thing? 

Stella. Do Vi. We never have any music at 
the Hall now Fraulein Schmidt has gone. 

Violet. Very well if you'd really like it. 

(Violet moves to piano with Stella.) 

Lady Faringford. (to Mrs. Jackson) You 
remember her? She was Stella's governess. Quite 
an intelligent good creature. But I dare say you 
never met her. She never used to come down to 
dinner. 

(Violet begins to hunt through music.) 

Lady Faringford. I always think German gov- 
ernesses so much more satisfactory than English. 
You see there's never any question about having to 
treat them as ladies. And then they're always so 
plain. That's a great advantage. And German is 
such a useful language, far more useful for a young 



14 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

girl than French. There are so many more books 
she can be allowed to read in it. French can be 
learnt later — and should be in my opinion. 

Mrs. Pratt. I quite agree with you Lady Faring- 
ford. But the Rector is less strict in these matters. 
He allowed my girls to begin French directly they 
went to school, at Miss Thursby's. But I'm bound 
to say they never seem to have learnt any. So per- 
haps it did no harm.. 

Mrs. Jackson. Yes, I have always heard Miss 
Thursby's was an excellent school. 

(Violet, having finished her search, puts a piece of 
music on piano and begins to play the second move- 
ments of Beethoven's twenty-seventh sonata.) 

(Enter Baines.) 

(She stops.) 

Baines. (going up to Mrs. Pratt) If you 
please. Madam, Simmonds is here asking if you 
could see him. They sent him on from the Rectory. 

Mrs. Pratt. Simmonds? Did he say his busi- 
ness? 

Baines. (coughs discreetly) Something about 
Mrs. Simmonds, I think, Madam. 

Mrs. Pratt. Of course. I remember. I will 
come in a moment. (rising) You'll excuse mo 
won't you, dear Mrs. Jackson ? It's Mrs. Simmonds. 
Foolish woman, she's had another baby. Her hus- 
band is in the hall. I shall probably have to run 
over to the Rectory for some things for her. 



THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 15 

Mrs. Jackson, (rising at once) Oh no, you 
mustn't do that. I am sure we have everjthin<,' 
necessary here, soup and jelly and flannel and any- 
thing else you think wise. And of course they will 
want some money. I had hetter come and see Sim- 
monds with you. Then we can tell the housekeeper 
to put the things together for him. 

Mrs. Pratt. But it's giving you so much trouble. 

Mrs. Jackson. Not in the least. It's no trouble. 
And I can't have you running away and leaving us 
before the Rector has finished his cigar. That would 
never do. 

Violet, (rising) Can I do anything, mother? 

Mrs. Jackson. No dear. I can manage quite 
well. You stay here and entertain Lady Faringford 
and Stella. We sha'n't be five minutes. 

(Exeunt Mrs. Jackson and Mrs. Pratt shown out 
by Baines.) 

Violet, (coming down stage) Poor Mrs. Sim- 
monds. I do hope the baby will be all right. 

Lady Faringford. I have no doubt it will. 
When people have far more children already than is 
either convenient or necessary, their babies always 
exhibit extraordinary vitality. Nothing seems to 
kill them. But you were going to play to us, dear. 

(Violet goes to piano again and begins to play. 
After a few moments Lady Faringford beclcons to 
Stella, who rises^crosesL. and sits by her mother. 
Lady Faringford begins to talk under cover of 
the music.) 



16 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

Lady Faringford. By the way, Stella, how are 
things going between you and Henry? 

Stella, (who has been ahsorhed in the music, 
turns to Lady Faringford quickly) What do you 
mean mother? 

Lady Faringford. Has he asked you to marry 
him yet ? 

Stella. No. 

Lady Faringford. Strange ! I thought he would 
have done so before now. I have given him several 
opportunities. 

Stella. Mother ! 

Lady Faringford. He is going to, I suppose ? 

Stella. I don't know. 

Lady Faringford. Nonsense, child. Of course 
you do. A girl always knows when a man wants to 
propose to her, unless she is perfectly idiotic. He 
will certainly propose if you give him proper en- 
couragement. And when he does you will accept him. 

Stella, (thoughtfully) Vm not sure. 

Lady Faringford. Not sure? Why not? You 
like him, don't you? (three or fonr loud chords on 
piano) I can't think who invented music after din- 
ner. One can hardly hear oneself speak. As I was 
saying, you like him ? 

Stella. Oh yes. I like him. 

Lady Faringford. Then of course you will ac- 
cept him. When a man proposes to a girl and she 
likes him and he is well off and otherwise eligible 
she should always accept him. 

Stella. But (hesitates) I don't love him, 
mother. 

Lady Faringford. My dear you must not ex- 



THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 11 

pect impossibities. Love matches aren't very common 
among people of our class. And they're by no means 
always successful either. Quite the contrary. If you 
marry a man you like you may come to love him — in 
time. But if you marry a man you love you may 
easily come to loathe him. 

(Pause.) 

Stella, (sighs) Well I suppose I shall have to 
marry him in the end. 

Lady Faringford. Of course you will. And I'm 
sure you might do a great deal worse. The Jacksons 
are really very well off. The business has grown 
enormously in the past few years. What can be keep- 
ing Mrs. Jackson so long? Since she left this room 
she has had time to pauperise the entire village. 

Lady Faringford. A very dangerous thing to do. 
Young girls when they fall in love invariably do it 
with the wrong person. What can be keeping Mrs. 
Jackson so long? Since she left this room she has 
had time to pauperise the entire village. 

Stella. It will take a little time to get the things 
together, I suppose, for poor Mrs. Simmonds. 

Lady Faringford. As to being in love that is a 
thing to which people attach far too much import- 
ance. Of course the Jacksons are parvenus. But 
everybody one meets nowadays is either a parvenu or 
a pauper. And really girls are so numerous just 
now they can't afford to be as particular as they 
were. Henry is the only son. 

Stella. No, mother. There's Eustace. 

Lady Faringford. I don't count Eustace. He 
went away years ago — to one of the colonies I be- 



18 THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 

lieve — and doubtless came to a bad end. Probably 
he's dead by now. 

Stella. Mother ! How can you say such terrible 
things ! 

Lady Faringford. Nonsense. Of course he's 
dead. And a very good thing too. Eeally what a 
noise our good Violet is making — If he weren't dead 
one would have heard something of him. That sort 
of young man always makes himself felt by his rela- 
tions as long as the breath's in his body. 

Stella. But if he's abroad — 

Lady Faringford. Then he would write — for 
money. People in the Colonies always do write for 
money. You don't remember him do you? 

Stella. Hardly at all. I've seen him of course. 

Lady Faringford. Ah. He was a handsome 
fellow. Clever too. But a thorough detrimental. 
It's just as well he went to the Colonies. No, my 
dear, you can't do better than accept Henry. He'll 
be quite a rich man some day and he's really very 
fairly presentable. And his father will get into 
Parliament. Not that that means anything now- 
adays. 

{Door opens. Men's voices without.) 

Here he is. 

{Enter l. Sir John Faringford, a little hold. 
The Rector, a little grey, Mr. Jackson, very 
portly and pompous, and Henry, his son.) 

Mr. Jackson. Hullo, all alone. Lady Faringford ? 
What's become of Maria — and Mrs. Pratt ? 



THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 19 

Violet. (rising from piano — doivn stage and 
across l.) Simmonds came to ask if he could see 
Mrs. Pratt. Mrs. Simmonds is ill. Mother and Mrs. 
Pratt are putting some things together for him to 
take to her. 

Lady Faringford. Your daughter has been en- 
tertaining us with her charming music while Mrs. 
Jackson was away. What was that little piece you 
were playing, dear? 

Violet. A sonata of Beethoven, Lady Faring- 
ford. 

Lady Faringford. Indeed? Very pretty. 

The Rector. You are going to play at our next 
Parish concert I hope, Miss Jackson? 

Violet. Yes. Mrs. Pratt and I have been get- 
ting out the programme. 

Sir John. Miss Jackson is a tower of strength in 
the musical line. Stella hardly plays a note. I al- 
v/ays tell my wife it's the result of having had a 
German governess. How can you expect a child to 
learn music in German? 

Lady Faringford. (rising and going up stage) 
I believe all modern music is written in German. It 
certainly sounds like it. 

(Lady Faringford goes up stage, sits and begins to 
talk to Mr. Jackson. The Rector talks to Vio- 
let on sofa with Sir John. Henry comes down 
and sits'hy Stella.) 

Henry. I hope you haven't been dull, Miss Far- 
ingford, while my mother has been out of the room. 
It's shocking of her to leave her guests in this way. 



20 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

Stella. Not at all. Vi has been playing to us. 
It has been delightful. 

Henry. You're very fond of music, aren't you? 

Stella. Yes. It's curious. When I was a child 
they made me learn of course, but I didn't care a 
bit about it. I was awfully troublesome over my 
lessons, I remember. So I made nothing of it. And 
now, when I'd give anything to be able to play, I 
can't. 

Henry. Why don't you take it up again? 

Stella. I do^ try sometimes. Sometimes I set to 
work and practise feverishly for a whole week. But 
it doesn't last. 

Henry. You should persevere. 

Stella. I know. But I don't. I suppose I'm 
lazy. But that's like me. I want to do things. I see 
I ought to do them. But somehow they don't get 
done. I expect you can't understand that? 

Henry. I'm afraid I can't. If I want a thing I 
take the necessary steps to get it. That's what " want- 
ing " means with me. 

Stella, {thoughtfully) And do you always get 
it? 

Henry. Generally. A man can generally get a 
thing in the end if he gives his mind to it. 

Stella. . Most people wouldn't say that. 

Henry. That's because most people don't know 
what they want. Instead of fixing their mind on 
one thing, and being determined to get it, they keep 
aiming first at one thing and then at another. So of 
course they don't get anything. They don't deserve 
to. 



THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 21 

Stella. Most people don't aim at all. They 
simply take what comes. 

Henry. Surely you don't do that ? 

Stella. I believe I do. (laughing) You see 
there's really not room for more than one will in any 
family. In our family it's mamma's. Mamma al- 
ways knows what she wants — like you. The worst of 
it is she doesn't always know what we want. 

Henry, I see. What happens then ? 

Stella. Oh mamma wins. We struggle a little 
sometimes, papa and I. But she gets her way in 
the end. (a pause) 

Henry. Miss Faringford, there's something I 
want to say to you. 

Stella. That sounds very serious. 

Henry. It is serious to me. It's something I've 
wanted to tell you for a long time. 

Stella, (rising nervously) Well, don't tell it me 
to-night. Later on perhaps. I don't think I want to 
hear about serious things to-night. 

(Door opens — enter Mrs. Jackson and Mrs. Pratt 
a little later.) 

Henry, (rising also) When may I tell it to 
you? 

Stella. I don't know. Sometime, perhaps. But 
not now. 

(Lady Faringford comes down.) 

Here's your mother come back with Mrs. Pratt. 
Mrs. Jackson. Lady Faringford, what will you 



22 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

think of me for leaving you so long. But the house- 
keeper was out. She had gone down to the village, 
to see her niece who is ill. So Mrs. Pratt and I had 
to put the things together for Simmonds ourselves. 
Mrs. Simmonds has another baby, Samuel, (sits) 

Mrs. Pratt. The poor are terribly thoughtless in 
these matters. That makes her sixth. I'm bound to 
say poor Simmonds seemed quite conscious of his 
folly. 

Lady Faringford. (l. hj tahle r.) That at least 
is satisfactory. But I have no hope that it will af- 
fect his future conduct. He will go on having 
children — at the usual intervals — until he dies. And 
then they will come on the Parish. 

Mrs. Jackson. But is Simmonds going to die? 
He said nothing about it. But of course he was 
rather flurried. 

Mr. Jackson. I hope you sent whatever was 
necessar}^, Maria? 

Mrs. Pratt. Far more. I really had to interfere 
to prevent Mrs. Jackson from emptying her store 
cupboard. 

The Rector. Well, well, I dare say poor Mrs. 
Simmonds will find a use for everything. 

Mr. Jackson. No doubt. And besides with an 
election in prospect — 

Sir John. Exactly. It can do no harm. 

Mr. Jackson. By the way, Sir John, as chair- 
man of my election committee, there's a point on 
which I want your advice, {brings him down stage) 
The local Branch of the Independent Order of Good 
Templars wrote to me ten days ago asking for a sub- 
scription. So I sent five guineas. 



THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 23 

(Mrs. Jackson rises and goes to Mrs. Pratt at table 
up stage.) 

Sir John. Quite right. The Temperance Vote 
must be reckoned with in this Division. 

Mr. Jackson. Just so. But the Good Templars 
published the fact in the local newspaper. 

Sir John. Well, that's what you wanted, wasn't 
it? 

Mr. Jackson. Ye-es. No doubt. But I forgot 
that the Secretary of the Local Branch of the 
Licensed Victuallers Association would be sure to see 
the paragraph and write to me for an explanation. 

Sir John. I see. Did he? 

Mr. Jackson. Yes. 

Sir John. Ah ! What did you do ? 

Mr. Jackson. I was in some doubt. But Sims, 
my agent, told me the Licensed Victuallers had a 
Benevolent Fund or something. So I sent ten 
guineas to that. That seemed the best way out of 
the difficulty. 

Sir John. Much the best, much the best, {trying 
to escape) 

Mr. Jackson, (detaining him) But that's not 
the end of the matter. For now the Good Templars 
have written to ask if I am prepared to support any 
legislation designed to combat the evil of the Drink 
Traffic. And the Licensed Victuallers want to know 
if I will pledge myself to oppose any Bill which 
aims at the reduction of the sale of intoxicating 
liquors. 

Sir John. Hum ! They rather had you there ! 

Mr. Jackson. Yes. . . . However, I think 



24 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

I've got out of it all right. I've written a letter to 
the Licensed Victuallers to say I'm not in favor of 
unduly restricting the sale of liquor in the interests 
of Temperance Propaganda. And I've written an- 
other to the Good Templars saying that I'm quite in 
favor of Temperance Propaganda providing it 
doesn't unduly restrict the sale of intoxicating liquor. 
I think that meets the case ? 

Sir John. I see. Running with the hare and 
hunting with the hounds in fact? Quite right. And 
now we really must be saying good-night, {to Lady 
Faringford) Come, my dear. It's time we were 
going. 

Mrs. Jackson. Oh, you mustn't go yet. It's 
quite early. 

Lady Faringford. We are early people, (rises) 
We really must go. Stella, my dear, we must be 
putting on our things. 

Henry. I'll ask if your carriage is round, (rings) 

Lady Faringford. If you will be so good. I 
told the coachman ten. I do hope it's stopped rain- 
ing. I believe the farmers want it but it's so bad 
for the horses. 

(Enter Baines.) 

Henry. Lady Faringford's carriage. 
Baines. It's at the door, sir. 
Henry. Very well. 

Lady Faringford. Good-night then, Mrs. Jack- 
son. Such a pleasant evening. Come, Stella. 

(Mrs. Jackson hy Eector.) 



THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 25 

(General adieux. The Faringfords and Stella go 
out escorted hy Henry and Mr. Jackson.) 

Mrs. Pratt. I think we ought to be going too. 

Mrs. Jackson. No. No. You mustn't run away 
like that. I've not had a moment to speak to the 
liector. And I'm sure Vi will want to talk to you 
about the next concert. Sit down again, Mrs. Pratt. 
(Mrs. Jackson r. sofa) 

(Re-enter Henry and Mr. Jackson.) 

What sort of a night is it, Samuel? Has it stopped 

(Henry goes to Violet.) 



raining ? 



Mr. Jackson. Yes, it's not raining now. But 
it's very dark. 

The Kector. The moon's full too. But I sup- 
pose there's too much cloud about. 

Mrs. Jackson. I do hope it will be lighter before 
you have to go home. It's such a dark road from here 
to the Rectory. 

The Rector. We have a lantern. We always 
bring it when we go out at night. We don't trust 
the moon. She's fickle, Mrs. Jackson, like all her 
sex. 

Mrs. Jackson. Rector, if you talk like that I 
shall scold you. And so will Mrs. Pratt. 

(Sudden noise of footsteps outside. Then door 
opens and enter Baines, rather flurried.) 



26 THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 

Baines. {a little hreathlcss) If you please, Sir, — 
Mr. Jackson. Well, what is it, Baines? 
Baines. If you i)lease, Sir, it's Mr. Eustace. 

(Mr. Jackson turns sharp round.) 

He was lying just by the front door. 

Mr. Jackson. Mr. Eustace? 

Mrs. Jackson, (jumping up) Eustace! 

Baines. Yes, Sir. Yes, Madam. Thomas saw 
him just as he was coming in after shutting the 
front gate. The moon came out for a moment and 
he saw him. He's fainted, Sir. At least I think 
so. 

(Mrs. Jackson moves across as Violet meets her 
c.) 

Mrs. Jackson. I must go to him. 

Mr. Jackson. No. Not you, Maria. I'll go. 

(The door opens.) 

Baines. I think they're bringing him in here, 
Sir. 

{Enter the Two Footmen carrying a draggled and 
dishevelled body hy the shoulders and the heels.) 

(Pause. Violet moves the arm chair to r. where it 
is taken hy Henry. The Rector and Violet 
move the sofa to receive the body as the Footmen 
bring it l.) 



THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 27 

(Mrs. Pratt by piano, Mrs. Jackson by body's 
head — All standing by the sofa.) 

Mrs. Jackson. Oh, my poor boy ! My poor dear 
boy! (rushes to him) 

YiOLET. Wait a minute. Put him here. 

Mrs. Jackson. Oh, he's dead! He's dead! I 
know he's dead. 

Violet, (immediately) Hush, mother. Some 
brandy, quick, Baines. And some cold water. I 
think he's only fainted, (puts cushion under his 
head and opens shirt at necJc) 

The Eector. Poor fellow. 

Mrs. Pratt. Oh, Mrs. Jackson. Your sofa ! It 
will be utterly ruined. 

Mrs. Jackson, (bending over him) Oh, I wish 
they'd be quick with the brandy. Henry, go at once 
for Dr. Glaisher. 

The Rector. Let me go. We pass his house any- 
way. And we mustn't stay any longer. We should 
only be in the way here. Come, my dear. 

(Enter Baines with brandy and jug of water.) 

Mrs. Pratt. Good-bye, dear Mrs. Jackson. No. 
You mustn't stir. And I do hope he'll be all right 
soon. We'll send Dr. Glaisher round at once. 

The Rector. Good-bye. (to Henry) Don't 
come with me my dear fellow. Baines can find my 
things. Stay and look after your brother. 

(Exeunt Mr. and Mrs. Pratt and Baines.) 

(Meantime Mrs. Jackson has been trying to force 
some brandy between clenched teeth of the patient.) 



^8 THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 

Violet. Your handkerchief, Henry. Quick. 

(Henry gives it. She dips it in jug, wrings it out 
and puts it over patient's forehead hy way of 
bandage. ) 

Mrs. Jackson. He doesn't stir. 

Mr. Jackson. I can feel his heart beating a little, 
I think. But I'm not sure. 

Mrs. Jackson, (lamentahly) Oh, will he never 
come round ! I wish Dr. Glaisher would come. If 
he were to die ! 

Violet, (soothing her) Hush, mother! He's 
only fainted. Didn't you hear father say he could 
feel his heart beating? 

Mrs. Jackson. Isn't there anything else we 
could do ? My salts ! 

Violet, (rising) I'll get them, mother. 

Mrs. Jackson. They're on my dressing table. 

(Exit Violet hurriedly.) 

No, I remember, I had them in the library this morn- 
ing, I'll go and look. Or was it the breakfast room ? 
I'm not sure. Oh dear, oh dear, poor darling Eustace ! 

(Exit in hurst of tears.) 

Mr. Jackson. She'll never find them. You go, 
Henry, and help her. Try the breakfast room. 

(Exeunt all save Mr. Jackson and Eustace.) 

(After Mr. Jackson has fidgetted round his son for 
a minute or so in helpless and grotesque efforts to 
restore his son to consciousness Violet's voice is 
heard through door which is left open.) 



THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 29 

Violet, (without) Father! 
Mr. Jackson, (going to door, hurriedly) Yes, 
yes, what is it? 

(Enter Violet.) 

Violet. Have you your keys ? Mother thinks she 
may have left her salts on your desk in the library 
and its locked. 

Mr. Jackson. Tck! Here they are. (Violet 
going) I'd better come or you'll disturb all my 
papers. 

(Exeunt Mr. Jackson and Violet.) 

(The stage is left empty for a moment of all save the 
man on the sofa. Presently Eustace raises him^ 
self cautiously, looJcs round, then finding no one 
there takes off head bandage and wrings it out, 
listens again, then sits up and puts feet to ground, 
picks up a hook, on which he has been lying 
with conspicuous red cover, glances at it, reads 
title " Hester's Escape," makes face, hears sound 
without, hurriedly puts feet up again on couch, re- 
places bandage and lays his head back on pillow 
just as Mrs. Jackson re-enters with Henry.) 

Mrs. Jackson, (piteously) They're not in the 
library. Where can I have put them? 

Henry. The others will find them. Violet is 
looking in your bed-room. She always finds things. 
And the Governor is in the breakfast room. They'll 
be here in a moment. 

(Enter Violet with salts in her hand, followed at a 
$hort interval by Mr. Jackson.) 



30 THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 

Mrs. Jackson. Thanks dear. {Iwlds the salts 
tremulously to patient's nose, hut forgetting to take 
out stopper, kneeling by his side) Where were they? 
(kneels hy sofa) 

Violet. In the dining room, on the writing table. 

Mrs. Jackson. Oh, yes, I remember. I had them 
there at lunch time. I knew I had put them some- 
where. 

Henry, (irritahly) My dear mother, there's no 
use holding those salts to his nose unless you take the 
stopper out. 

(Mrs. Jackson fumbles with stopper. Patient stirs 
slightly and turns away his head.) 

Mr. Jackson. He^s coming round. He moved a 
little. Try him with some more brandy. 

(Mrs. Jackson puts down salts and takes up brandy 
which she pours into patient's mouth. He makes 
elaborate business of coming round, gives a sigh, 
opens his eyes, then raises himself and looks 
round.) 

Eustace. Is that you, mother? 

Mrs. Jackson. Yes, dear, yes. 

Eustace. Where am I? 

Mrs. Jackson. At home, dear. Your own home. 
Oh, he's not dead ! He's not dead ! (embracer him 
sobbing passionately) 

Curtain. 




o 



D 



o 





THE RETURN OF THE PRODiaAL. Si 



ACT 11. 

Scene: — The hreakfast room at the Jacksons'. In 
the middle of stage the hreahfast table which is 
round and would hold about six people. It is fully 
laid with cloth, tea and coffee things, toast, dishes, 
etc. The fireplace (no fire) is on the right and 
above and below it are leather-covered armchairs. 
There is a large French window at back through 
which is seen garden. The windoius are open as it 
is a bright summer day. There is a door r. up to 
hall. On the left is a sideboard on which stand 
fruit, some spare plates, etc., also a box of cigars 
and a box of cigarettes. On either side of the 
window are bookcases. Down l., below sideboard, 
a writing table. When the curtain rises Mr. Jack- 
son sits R. of table. Henry on left, Violet on the 
side furthest from footlights. She has the coffee, 
etc., in front of her. Mr. Jackson is faced by 
bacon dishes. They all go on eating their break- 
fasts for half a minute after curtain has risen. 
Henry is reading a neivspaper propped up by his 
side. Violet is reading letters. 

Henry, {handing cup) More coffee, please, Vio- 
let, {to Mr. Jackson) Wenhams have failed, 
father. 



32 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

Mr. Jackson. It's only what we expected, isn't 
it? 

Henry. Yes. Forty thousand they say here. 
But of course it's only a guess. No one can know 
till the accounts are made up. 

Mr. Jackson. They've been shaky for some time. 

(Enter Mrs. Jackson.) 

Well, how is he ? 

Mrs. Jackson. Much better. He looks quite a 
different person. 

Mr. Jackson. Did he eat any breakfast? 

Mrs. Jackson. He hasn't had any yet. At least 
only a cup of tea. He says he'd rather come down. 
He's getting up now. 

Violet. Didn't Dr. Glaisher say he was to stay 
in bed? 

Mrs. Jackson. Yes. But if he wants to come 
down I don't think it can do any harm. He can lie 
down on the sofa till lunch if he feels tired. 

Mr. Jackson. What time is Glaisher coming? 

Violet. Half-past ten, he said. 

Henry. Has Eustace explained how he came to 
be lying in the drive in that state? Last night we 
could get nothing out of him. 

Mrs. Jackson. No wonder. He was dazed, poor 
boy. He had walked all the way from London and 
had had nothing to eat. 

Henry. How was it he was in London. He was 
sent to Australia. 

Mrs. Jackson. He had been in Australia. He 
worked his passage home. 



THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. U 

Mr. Jackson. His money is all gone, I suppose 
— the thousand pounds I gave him? 

Mrs. Jackson. I don't know, Samuel. I didn't 
ask. 

Mr. Jackson. Humph ! (pause) I'll 

trouble you for the toast please. Henry. 

Henry. I suppose we'd better make enquiries 
about Wenhams' father. It might be worth our while 
to buy the mill if it goes cheap. Then we could run 
it and ours together. 

Mr. Jackson. Just so. Will you see to that? 

(Henry nods.) 

Mrs. Jackson. I've got a letter to Aunt Isabel 
to send by the early post. I ought to have written 
it last night. Will you put it into the box for me, 
Samuel, as you go to the mill? (goes l. to writ-' 
ingtable and sits.) 

Mr. Jackson. Certainly, my dear. 

Henry. Very tiresome Eustace turning up in 
that disreputable condition last night. What will 
Stella think ? 

Mr. Jackson. It's lucky the Faringfords had 
gone before he was brought in. 

Henry. The Pratts hadn't. Mrs. Pratt will have 
told the entire village before lunch time. 

Violet. I don't see why we should mind if she 
does. There's nothing to be ashamed of. {rises and 
reads letter by fireplace) 

Henry, (impatiently) Well, we won't discuss 
it. (returns to his paper) 

Mrs. Jackson, (moving nearer Henry to get 



34 THE RETURN OP THE PROCiaAL. 

paper) By the way, Henry, did you say anything 
to Stella last night? 

Henry (hesitates) No. 

Mr. Jackson. I thought you were going to? 

Henry. I was. In fact I did begin. But she 
didn't let me finish. I suppose she didn't under- 
stand what I was going to say. 

Mr. Jackson. Don't put it off too long. There 
may be an election any day now and the Faringford 
influence means a great deal. 

Henry. You've got Faringford's influence al- 
ready. He's chairman of your committee. 

Mr. Jackson. That's true. Still, he'll take 
more trouble when I'm one of the family so to speak. 
Yes, I shouldn't put it off if I were you. 

Henry. Very well, father. 

Mr. Jackson. Of course Faringford is as poor 
as Job. The estate's mortgaged up to the hilt. And 
anything there is after he and Lady Faringford go 
out of the coach — if there is anything — will go to 
the son. Stella won't have a sixpence. Still they're 
good people, position in the county and all that. 
And you'll have enough money for both. 

Henry. Yes. Especially if we get hold of Wen- 
hams' mill. I'm sure I could make a good thing out 
of it. We'd put in turbines as we did here, get new 
machinery and double our output. 

Mr. Jackson. How are the turbines working by 
the way? 

Henry. All right. And they'll go still better 
when the new sluices are done, (rising) Well, I 
shall go over to the mill now. Are you coming? 



THE nETUilN OP I'HE PRODIGAL. 35 

Mr. Jackson. In a moment, {finishes his coffee 

and rises) 

{Exit Henry r.) 

Violet. Shall I get your hat and stick, father? 
Mr. Jackson. Do, dear. 

{Exit Violet r.)' 

Is your letter ready, Maria? 

Mrs. Jackson. Just done, {fastens it up. ris- 
ing) You won't forget it, will you? 

{Re-enter Henry with hat r.) 

Mr. Jackson. No. Or if I do Henry will re- 
mind me. 

Mrs. Jackson, {to Henry) Won't you wait 
and see Eustace before you go, Henry? He'll be 
down in a moment. 

Henry. It doesn't matter. I shall see him soon 
enough. Coming father? 

{Exit c.) 

Mrs. Jackson. I think Henry might have stayed 
to see Eustace before he started. . 

Mr. Jackson. I dare say he'll be over m the 
course of the morning. 

(Violet re-entering.) 

Violet. Here's your hat and stick, father. 
Mr. Jackson. That's a good girl, {kisses her) 
Good-bye. I shall be in for lunch. 



36 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

(Exit c.) 

Mrs. Jackson, (going to hacon dish and lifting 
cover) We must order some more bacon. Or do you 
think Eustace had better have an egg ? 

Violet. Shall I go up and ask him? 

Mrs. Jacksoist. Do dear. And I wonder if you'd 
see cook at the same time and ask her if she's want- 
ing anything. I have to go into the village. 

Violet. Very well, mother. 
{Exit Violet r. Mrs. Jackson taJces away plates to 

sideboard, clears a place for Eustace where 

Henry sat and lays for him) 

Baines. (announcing) Dr. Glaisher. 

(Enter Dr. Glaisher r.)' 

Mrs. Jackson, (shaking hands) Oh, doctor. 
Good morning, (to Baines) Tell Mr. Eustace Dr. 
Glaisher is here. 

(Exit Baines.) «^ 

Dr. Glaisher. (hrisTc and professional) Well, 
how does he seem ? Going on well ? 

Mrs. Jackson. Quite well, I think. 

Dr. Glaisher. Did he have a good night? 

Mrs. Jackson. Excellent he says. 

Dr. Glaisher. Ah. Just so. Shall I go up to 
him? 

Mrs. Jackson. He's coming down for break- 
fast. He'll be here in a moment. 

Dr. Glaisher. Coming down is he? (by fire- 
place) Come, that looks satisfactory. Still we must 
be careful. No overfatigue. His condition last 



THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 37 

night gave cause for considerable anxiety. Indeed 
I may say that if I had not fortunately been sent for 
at once and applied the necessary remedies there was 
distinct danger of collapse, um! distinct danger. 
Mrs. Jackson. Oh, Doctor ! 

{Enter Eustace r. very fresh and genial in an ad- 
mirahle suit of clothes.) 

Dr. Glaisher. Ah, here he is. 

Eustace. Good morning, mother, {kisses her) 
Hullo, doctor. Come to see me? 

Dr. Glaisher. {shaking hands) Well, and how 
are we this morning? 

Eustace. Getting on all right, I think. A bit 
limp and washed out perhaps. 

Dr. Glaisher. Just so. The temperature nor- 
mal? No fever? {touches forehead) That's right. 
Pulse, {feels it) A little irregular, perhaps. But 
nothing serious. Excitement due to overfatigue no 
doubt. Now, let me see your tongue, {does so) 
Just so. As I should have expected. Just as I 
should have expected, dear Mrs. Jackson. Appetite 
not very good, I suppose ? 

Eustace. Er — not very. 

Dr. Glaisher. Just so. Just so. {nods sagaci- 
ously) 

Eustace, {gaily) Not dead yet, eh doctor? 
{sits on arm of chair) 

Mrs. Jackson. My dear! 

Dr. Glaisher. {with heavy geniality) We shall 
pull you through. Oh, we shall pull 3^ou through. 
But you must take care of yourself for a few days. 



38 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

No excitement! No overfatigue. The system wants 
tone a little, wants tone. 

Eustace. I see. I'm to take it easy in fact for 
a bit, eh? 

Dr. Glaisher. Just so. 

Eustace. I won't forget. I say what clever beg- 
gars you doctors are! You feel a fellow's pulse and 
look at his tongue and you know all about him at 
once. Don't you ? 

Dr. Glaisher. (phased) Not all perhaps. 
But there are indications, symptoms, which the pro- 
fessional man can interpret. . . . 

Eustace, (interruptmg) Quite extraordinary. 
I say, what do you think of these clothes? Not had 
are they. They're Henry's. But I chose them — 
out of his drawers. Poor old Henry ! 

Mrs. Jackson. How naughty of you, Eustace. 
I'm sure Henry won't like it. 

Eustace. Of course he won't, mother dear. No- 
body does like his clothes being worn by someone else. 
But I must wear something you know. I can't come 
down to breakfast in a suit of pyjamas. Besides 
they're Henry's pyjamas. 

Mrs. Jackson. But I told Thomas specially to 
put out an old suit of your father's for you. Didn't 
he do it? 

Eustace. Yes. But I can't wear the governor's 
clothes, you know. We haven't the same figure. I 
say I'd better ring for breakfast, (does so) 

Mrs. Jackson. Have you ordered it dear? I 
sent Vi up to ask whether you'd like bacon or eggs. 

Eustace. Yes. Violet asked me. I said bacon 
and eggs. 



thej return of the prodigal. 30 

{Enter Violet r.) 

Hullo, Vi, you're just in time to pour out my coffee. 
Dr. Glaisher. (shakes hands with Violet) 
Well, I must be off to my other patients, (to Mrs. 
Jackson) Good-bye, Mrs. Jackson. He is going on 
well, quite as well as can be expected that is. There 
are no fresh symptoms of an unfavorable character. 
But you must keep him quiet for a few days. There 
are signs of nervousness about him, a sort of sup- 
pressed excitement which I don't like. The system 
wants tone, decidedly wants tone. I'll send him up 
a mixture to take. He has evidently been through 
some strain lately. I knew that directly I saw him 
last night. You can't deceive a doctor! 

(Man brings in breakfast— rack of toast on table, 
coffee and rolls on sideboard, clears table of dirty 
plates, etc., so as to leave only a manageable quan' 
tity of " business " for Baines when latter has to 
clear the table later. This is important so that 
Baines's scene may not have to be played too 
slowly.) 

Mrs. Jackson, (anxiously) But you don't 
think there's anything serious the matter? 

Dr. Glaisher. No ! no ! Let us hope not. The 
general constitution is sound enough, not over strong 
perhaps, but sound. And with youth on his side. 
Let me see how old is he? iij- 

Mrs. Jackson. Nine and twenty. ' 5 

Dr. Glaisher. Just so. Just so. Well, good 
morning, (to Eustace.) Good morning. And re- 



40 THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 

member quiet, perfectly quiet. I'll look in again to- 
morrow morning and see how he's getting on. 

Eustace. (nods) Good-bye! (goes towards 
breakfast table.) 

(Dr. Glaisher shakes hands with Violet and goes 
out R. Violet seats herself at table to pour out 
Eustace's coffee. Mrs. Jackson sits by 
Eustace.) 

Mother, I think I must become a doctor. It's the 
only profession I know of which seems to require no 
knowledge whatever, and it's the sort of thing I 
should do rather well, (begins his breakfast) 

(Exit Footman.) 

Mrs. Jackson. I dare say, my dear. You must 
speak to your father about it. . . . (sitting) 
And now you must tell us all about yourself. What 
have you been doing all this time? And why have 
you never written? 

Eustace. There was nothing to tell you — that 
you'd have liked to hear. 

Mrs. Jackson. My dear, of course we should 
have liked to hear everything about you. 

Eustace. I doubt it. No news is good news. I 
bet the governor thought that — and Henry. 
. ,Mrs. Jackson. No, no, dear. I assure you your 
father was quite anxious when we never heard — at 
first. 

Eustace. Ah well, if the governor was so anx- 
ious to know how I was he shouldn't have packed me 



THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 41 

off to x^ustralia. I never could endure writing let- 
ters. 

Violet, Still you might have sent us word. It 
would have been kinder to mother. 

{Down to fire and sits front of table.) 

Eustace, (laying his hand on his mother's as it 
lies on the arm of her chair.) Poor mother. I sup- 
pose I was a brute. But I've not been very prosper- 
ous these five years, and as I'd nothing pleasant to 
say I thought I wouldn't write. 

Mrs. Jackson. But what became of your money 
dear? The thousand pounds your father gave you? 

Eustace. I lost it. 

Mrs. Jackson. Lost it? 

Eustace. Part of it went in a sheep farm. I 
suppose I was a bad farmer. Anyhow the sheep 
died. The other part I put in a gold mine. I sup- 
pose I wasn't much of a miner. Anyhow there was 
no gold in it. I was in the Mounted Police for a 
time. That was in Natal. It v/asn't bad but it 
didn't lead to anything. So I cleared out. I've 
been in a bank in Hong Kong. I've driven a cable 
car in San Francisco, I've been a steward on a liner, 
I've been an actor, and I've been a journalist. I've 
tried my hand at most things in fact. At one time 
I played in an orchestra. 

Mrs. Jackson. You were always so fond of 
music. 

Eustace, (drihj) Yes, I played the triangle — 
and took a whack at the big drum between times. 

Violet. How absurd you are! 

Eustace. Finallv, I came home. That was when 



42 THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 

my experience as a steward came in. I worked my 
passage as one — if you can call it work ! I was sick 
all the time. 

Mrs. Jackson. How dreadful ! 

Eustace. It was — for the passengers. 

Violet. How long ago was that? 

Eustace. Only about a month. Since then I've 
been in London picking up a living one way or an- 
other. At last, when I found myself at the end of 
my tet.her, I started to walk here. And here I am. 

Mrs. Jackson. My dear boy ! You must have 
found it terribly muddy ! 

Eustace. I did. But life always is rather 
muddy, isn't it? At least that's my experience. 

Mrs. Jackson. But weren't you very tired? 

Eustace. I was tired, of course. Give me some 
more coffee, Vi. 

{She does so.) 

Well, how have you all been at home? How's the 
governor ? 

Mrs. Jackson. He's been very well on the whole. 
His lumbago was rather troublesome at the end of 
last year. Otherwise he's been all right. 

Eustace. Does he stick to business as close as 
ever? 

Mrs. Jackson. Not quite. You see Henry's a 
partner now. The firm is Jackson, Hartopp and 
Jackson, and he takes a good deal of work off your 
father's shoulders. Henry is an excellent man of 
business. 

(Eustace nods.) 

Your father gives more of his time to public affairs 



THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 43 

now. He's a magistrate and been on the County 
Council for the last three years. And now he's 
standing for Parliament. 

Eustace. The family's looking up in the world. 
The business is flourishing, then ? 

Mrs. Jackson. Oh, yes. TheyVe put in all new 
machinery in the last three years. And they've got 
turbines instead of the old water wheels. That was 
Henry's idea. And now they can turn out a cheaper 
cloth than any of the mills round here. 

Eustace. Cheaper? The Governor used to de- 
spise cheap cloth. 

Mrs. Jackson. Yes, but Henry said it was no 
use making cloth that would last a lifetime if people 
only wanted it to last twelve months. So he got over 
new machines — from America. And now they don't 
make any good cloth at all and your father has 
trebled his income. 

Eustace. Bravo, Henry. 

Mrs. Jackson, (rises) And now I really must 
go down to the village and do my shopping. Have 
you got cook's list, Vi? 

(To side table for cigarettes then nearer to hell.) 

Violet. Yes, mother. But I'm coming, too. I 
promised Mrs. Pratt I'd call at the Vicarage before 
twelve to arrange about the next Mothers' Meeting. 

Mrs. Jackson, (to Eustace.) You'll find the 
paper there dear, and some cigarettes unless you 
think you oughtn't to smoke. I'll ring for them to 
clear away. And remember, dear. Dr. Glaisher said 
you were to keep quite quiet, (kisses him.) 



44 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

Eustace. All right, mother. I'll remember. 

(still at table.) 

(Mrs. Jackson a7id Violet go out. Eustace 
shuts the door, comes slowly doiun stage. The 
smile dies out of his face and he gives a percepti- 
ble yawn. Then he goes r. chooses cigarette, lights 
it in leisurely fashion. TaTces up paper. Comes 
to L. Selects chair above fireplace, sits down and 
begins to read.) 

{Enter Baines.) 

You can clear away, Baines. 

Baines. Thank yon, sir. {pause, clearing away) 
I hope you're feeling better this morning, sir? {goes 
on clearing table throughout this scene.) 

Eustace. Thanks Baines, the doctor thinks Fm 
getting on all right. 

Baines. Narrow escape you had last night, sir. 
Thomas says the carriage wheels must have gone 
within a foot of your head. 

Eustace. Thomas is a — I mean does he say that ? 

Baines. Curious thing we shouldn't have seen 
you, sir. We must have been that close. But it was 
a very dark night except when the moon was out. 
Then it was as bright as day almost. That was how 
he came to see you, sir. 

Eustace. Oh that was it, was it? 

Baines. Yes, sir. You see Thomas had just shut 
the gate after the carriage drove away and the moon 
happened to come out. . . 



THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 45 

Eustace, (hored) Quite so. Whose carriage 
was it by the way? 

Baines. Sir John Faringford's, sir. 

Eustace. Well if one's head is to be driven over 
it may as well be by a member of the aristocracy eh, 
Baines ! 

Baines. Certainly, sir. 

Eustace. Sir John often dine here now-a-days? 

Baines. Yes, sir. And Lady Faringford, and 
Miss Stella. 

Eustace. Miss Stella? 

Baines. Their daughter, sir. I dare say you 
wouldn't remember her. Only came out about a 
year ago. (pause.) 

Eustace. So my father is standing for Parlia- 
ment, is he? 

Baines. Yes, sir. 

Eustace. Will he get in ? 

Baines. It's thought so, sir. 

Eustace. By the way which side is he on? 

Baines. (puzzled) I beg pardon, sir? 

Eustace. Which side ? Liberal or Conservative ? 

Baines. Conservative of course, sir. All the 
people round here are Conservative. All the gentry, 
that is. 

Eustace. More respectable, eh Baines? 

Baines. Yes, sir. 

(Baines who has tray in his hand, hears hell, has 
a moment of indecision then puts tray down on 
table.) 

Excuse me, sir. 

(Exit.) 



46 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

(Eustace goes hack to his paper. A moment later 
Baines returns and looks about on writing 
table.) 

Eustace. What is it, Baines ? Do you want any- 
thing. 

Baines. If you please, sir, Miss Faringford has 
called for a book Miss Violet promised to lend her. 
{continues to search.) 

Eustace, {after pause) Have you found it? 

Baines. No, sir. 

Eustace, {putting down paper on other arm- 
chair, bored and rising) I'd better see her. 

{Goes out R. Baines folds tablecloth and puts it 
away in sideboard drawer.. Is just about to go o^it 
carrying tray ivhen Enter Stella followed by 
Eustace r. Draws back to let them pass as 
they enter.) 

Come in, Miss Faringford. Perhaps I can find the 
book for you. What was it like? 

{Enter Stella.) 

Stella. It was Just an ordinary looking novel. 
With a bright red cover. Called " Hester's Escape." 

{Over by writing table.) 

Eustace. " Hester's Escape." I seem to remem- 
ber the name, {turns round and faces her for the 
first time. Pause. Is obviously struck by the fact 
that she is a very pretty girl.) But Vi will know 



THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 47 

where it is. You'd better wait till she comes in. Sit 
down. She'll be back directly. 

Stella, {sittmg in armchair hy the fireplace.) 
Are you sure? 

Eustace. Quite! {turns round chair at break- 
fast table in front of fireplace and sits in it.) 

(Exit Baines.) 

You won't mind an untidy room, will you? I'm 
afraid I breakfasted late. 

Stella. I wonder you are down at all. 

Eustace, (sits) Oh, I'm all right. 

Stella. Are you sure you ought to talk ? People 
who have been ill ought to be quiet, oughtn't they? 

Eustace. There's really nothing the matter with 
me. 

Stella. That's not what Mrs. Pratt told me. I 
met her in the village as I was coming here. 

Eustace. Ah, yes. She was present of course 
when I made my dramatic entry. Did she tell you 
about it ? I hope it went off well. 

Stella. You frightened everyone terribly if 
that's what you mean. Mrs. Pratt says you looked 
dreadful. She thought you were going to die. 

Eustace. Quite a thrilling experience for her. 
She ought to be very much obliged to me. 

Stella. How can you joke about it ! You might 
really have died, you know. But when people have 
travelled all over the world as you have, and endured 
hardship and danger, I suppose death doesn't seem 
so terrible to them as it does to us who stay at home. 
Eustace. I suppose not. They get used to it. 



48 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

Stella. Have you often been in great danger, 
really great I mean? 

Eustace. I was at Singapore when the Plague 
was there. 

Stella. How awful. 

Eustace. Yes. It wasn't pleasant. 

Stella. I can't think how anyone can stay in 
England when he might go out and see the world. 
If I were a man I would go abroad and visit strange 
countries and have wonderful adventures as you have 
done, not waste my life in a dull little village like 
Chedleigh. 

Eustace. My dear Miss Faringford, the whole 
world is a dull little village like Chedleigh, and I've 
wasted my life in it. 

{Enter Baines.) 

Baines. If you please, sir, the Rector has called 
to ask how you are. 

Eustace. Oh, bother. Say I'm very much 
obliged and I'm all right. 

Baines. He said he would like to see you if you 
felt well enough, sir. 

Eustace. Ah! wait a minute, (thinks) Will 
you say I'm not well at all and quite unfit to see him 
this morning. 

Baines. Very well, sir. 

{Exit R.) 

Stella, (rising) And now I must go. I'm 
only tiring you. I expect you oughtn't to talk. 



THE: JlBTURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 40 

Eustace. But I assure you 

Stella. And as you^re quite unfit to see visi- 
tors— 

Eustace. I'm quite unfit to see the Rector. 
That's quite a different thing. I'm perfectly up to 
seeing you. Besides Violet should be here directly, 
now. Sit down again. 

Stella, (hesitating) I don't think I ought to 
stay. 

Eustace. I'm sure you ought. One should visit 
the sick you know. 

Stella, (with a laugh) You don't seem quite 
able to make up your mind whether you are ill or 
well. 

Eustace. No. I vary. I find it more conven- 
ient. 

(Enter Baines r.) 

(irritably) Well, what is it now, Baines? 
Baines. Lady Faringford. 

(Enter Lady Faringford r. Eustace rises.) 

Stella, (rising) Mamma! 

Lady Faringford. (ignoring her) Mr. Eustace 
Jackson, is it not ? How do you do ? (shakes hands 
frigidly) I heard in the village of your sudden re- 
turn and stopped the carriage to ask how you were. 
As the servant told me you were downstairs I thought 
I would come in for a moment. 

Eustace. Very kind of you, Lady Faringford. 

Lady Faringford. (severely) You hardly ap- 
pear as ill as I expected. 



50 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

Eustace. I hope the disappointment is an agree- 
able one ? 

Lady Faringford. No disappointments are 
agreeable, sir. And pray what are you doing here, 
Stella? 

Eustace. Miss Faringford called for a book my 
sister lent her last night, " Hester's Escape." I 
persuaded her to come in and sit down till Violet re- 
turned. 

Lady Faringford. You are expecting her soon ? 

Eustace. Every moment. 

Lady Faringford. Ah. Then I don't think we 
can wait. 

Eustace. But, Miss Faringford's book. She 
mustn't go away without it. Sit down for a mo- 
ment while I see if I can find it. (to Stella) A 
bright red cover I think you said, (looks round 
the room for it.) 

Lady Faringford. (icily) Pray don't trouble, 
Mr. Jackson. 

Eustace. " Hester's Escape ? " I'm sure I've 
seen it somewhere. (tliinJcs a moment) I know. 
It was in the drawing room, last night. Excuse me 
for a moment. I'll go and get it. 

(Exit r.) 

Lady Faringford. (sitting down, sternly) 
Really Stella, I'm surprised at you. 

Stella. What is it. Mamma? 

Lady Faringford. You know , perfectly well. 
How long have you been here ? 

Stella. (sulkily) I don't know 

About ten minutes, perhaps. 



THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 51 

Lady Faringford. Do you make a habit of pay- 
ing morning calls upon young men without a chap- 



eron 



Stella. No, mamma. 

Lady Faringford. Then I hope you will not 
begin to do so. 

Stella. I came to call for a book which Vi 
promised to lend me. Yi was out and Mr. Jackson 
very kindly asked me to come in and wait. What 
harm is there in that? 

Lady Faringford. There is every harm. Un- 
derstand, please, that Mr. Eustace Jackson is not a 
suitable acquaintance for you. 

Stella. He is Henry's brother. You have no 
objection to my knowing Henry. 

Laj)Y Faringford. That is quite different. 
Henry has a large income and excellent prospects. 
He is a man whom any young girl may be allowed 
to know. Eustace is a mere ne'er-do-well. 

Stella. Am I never to speak to anyone who 
isn't rich ? The Du Cranes aren't rich or the Vere- 
Anstruthers. Yet we know them. We aren't rich 
ourselves if it comes to that. 

Lady Faringford. That has nothing to do with 
it. The Du Cranes and poor George Anstruther are 
gentlepeople. The Jacksons are tradesmen. 

Stella. I think people make far too much fuss 
about being " gentlepeople." 

Lady Faringford. Then I hope you won't say 
so. I don't like this pernicious modern jargon about 
shopkeepers and gentlefolk being much the same. 
There's far too much truth in it to be agreeable. 

Stella. If it's true why shouldn't we say it? 



52 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

Lady Farikgford. Because we have everything 
to lose by doing so. We were born into this world 
with what is called position. Owing to that posi- 
tion we are received everywhere, flattered, made 
much of. Though we are poor, rich people are 
eager to invite us to their houses and marry our 
daughters. So much the better for us. But if we 
began telling people that position was all moon- 
shine, family an antiquated superstition and many 
duchesses far less like ladies than their maids, the 
world would ultimately discover that wha4; we were 
saying was perfectly true. Whereupon we should 
lose the very comfortable niche in the Social system 
which we at present enjoy and — who knows? — 
might actually be reduced in the end to doing some- 
thing useful for our living like other people. No, 
No, my dear, rank and birth and the peerage may 
be all nonsense, but it isn't our business to say so. 
Leave that to vulgar people who have something to 
gain by it. Noblesse oblige! 

(Enter Eustace r. with the book in his hand.) 

Eustace. Here is the book, Miss Faringford. I 
hope you haven't had to wait too long. It was in the 
drawing room as I thought, but it had got put 
away under some papers. 

Stella. Thank you so much. 

Lady Faringford. (rising, icily) Good-bye, 
Mr. Jackson. 

Stella. Good-bye. Give my love to Violet. 
(shakes hands.) 



THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 53 

{Exeunt Lady Faringford and Stella escorted by 
Eustace r. After a moment Enter Henry hy 
window c. He has some papers with him which 
he has brought from the mill. He tahes off hat, 
puts papers on table up, is about to write letter 
when re-enter Eustace.) 

Eustace. {after moment strolls across l. to 
Henry.) Hullo, Henry. Where did you spring 
from? 

{They shaTce hands.) 

Henry. From the mill. I came across the lawn. 
We had a short cut made through the shrubbery and 
a gate put three years ago. It's quicker. 

Eustace. One of your improvements, eh? 

Henry. Yes. 

(Eustace laughs.) 

You're amused? 

Eustace. It's so like you having a path made 
so as to get to your work quicker. 

Henry. Yes. I'm not an idler. 

Eustace. Quite so. And / am, you mean? 

(Eustace sits.) 

Henry, {shrugs) I didn't say so. 
Eustace. You wanted to spare my feelings, no 
doubt. Very thoughtful of you, {a pause.) 
Henry. Is your mother in? 
Eustace. I believe not. . . By the way I've 



54 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

been borrowing some of youp clothes. Not a bad fit 
are they ? It^s lucky we're so much the same size. 

Henry, {grimly) Very ! 

Eustace. It^s particularly lucky as I've been 
entertaining visitors on behalf of the family. 

Henry, Indeed ? 

Eustace. Yes. One of them a very charming 
visitor. 

Henry. Who was that ? 

Eustace. Miss Faringford. 

Henry. Stella? 

Eustace. Yes. Very nice girl altogether. She 
was here quite a long time while I told her my ad- 
ventures — or as much of them as I thought suitable. 
Then unhappily her mother turned up. Rather an 
awful woman that. 

Henry. What did Stella come for? 

Eustace. Not to enquire after me if that's what 
you mean. Miss Faringford came for a book Vi had 
lent her, " Hester's Escape." She's certainly a very 
pretty girl. And a nice one. 

Henry, {stiffly) I may as well tell you I in- 
tend to marry Stella Faringford. 

Eustace. Indeed, {pause) Have you asked her 
yet? 

Henry. No. 

Eustace. Then I wouldn't be too sure if I were 
you. Perhaps she won't have you. 

Henry, {rising after silence) Oh, by the way, 
how are you? 

Eustace. I'm all right thanks. 

Henry, {irritably) How on earth did you come 
to be lying in the drive in that way last night? 



THB RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 5S 

Eustace, (airily) Exhaustian, my dear chap. 
Cold and exposure! Hunger. You know the kind 
of thing. 

Henry. Cold? Why it's the height of summer. 

Eustace. Heat, then. 

Henry. But how did you manage to get here. 
That's what I want to know. You were supposed to 
be in Australia. 

Eustace, {beginning to laugh) I'll tell you. 
(sits on table) Only you must promise not ta give 
me away. 

(Henry turns.) 

I was awfully hard up and awfully sick of finding 
jobs and losing them and at last I began to long 
for a proper dinner, properly served, and a decent 
suit of clothes. Like these. I thought of writing 
to the governor. But that would have been no good. 
He'd have sefit me some good advice and the mater 
would have sent a fiver and in a fortnight things 
would have been as bad as ever. At last I thought 
of a dramatic cotip. The Prodigal's Return! The 
Fatted Calf. A father softened, a mother in tears. 
The virtuous elder brother scowling in the back- 
ground. So I came here. Back to the Old Home you 
know. At the front door I selected a convenient 
spot and lay down in an elaborate faint. Excuse the 
pun. I chose the moment just after the Faring- 
fords^ carriage had gone. I knew the footman would 
have to come in after shutting the gate and I in- 
tended to kick his leg and groan in an impressive 
manner. Anything to attract attention. Fortu- 
nately the moon came out just at the right moment 



56 THS RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 

so the fool couldn't help spotting me. He called 
Baines who recognised me in a moment. They were 
very sympathetic ! I expect they thought I was 
drunk. The lower classes are always sympathetic to 
intoxication. I was home into the drawing room. 
The wandering sheep returned to the fold, the exile 
home again. Tableau ! most pathetic ! 

Henry, (disgusted) And so you walked all the 
way from London to Chedleigh in order to play off 
a heartless practical joke. 

Eustace. Walked ? Nonsense. I came by train. 
(walks across followed by Henry.) 

Henry. But you told Vi you walked. 

Eustace. I said I started to walk. I only got as 
far as the station. 

Henry, (angrily) It was unpardonable. The 
mater was awfully upset. So was the Governor. 

Eustace. That was the idea. There's nothing 
like a sudden shock to bring out anyone's real feel- 
ings. The Governor had no idea how fond he was 
of me until he saw me apparently dead and unlikely 
to give him further trouble. And by the time I came 
round he'd forgotten the cause of his sudden af- 
fection — or perhaps he's never realised it — and was 
genuinely glad to see me. Psychologically it was 
most interesting. 

(Eustace goes up to window.) 

Henry. It was extremely undignified and quite 
unnecessary. If you had simply come up to the 
front door and rung the bell you would have been 
received just as readily. 

Eustace. I doubt it. 



THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 57 

(Henry moves to l.) 

In fact, I doubt if I should have been received at all. 
I might possibly have been given a bed for the night, 
but only on the distinct understanding that I left 
early the next morning. Whereas now nobody talks 
of my going. A poor invalid. In the doctor's 
hands ! Perfect quiet essential ! No. My plan was 
best. 

(Henry moves up to Eustace and past Mm down 
to fire.) 

Henry. Why didn't that fool Glaisher see 
through you? 

Eustace. Doctors never see through their pa- 
tients. It's not what they're paid for and it's con- 
trary to professional etiquette. 

(Henry makes exclamation of disgust). 

Besides Glaisher's an ass, I'm glad to say. 

Henry, (fuming) It would serve you right if I 
told the Governor the whole story. 

Eustace. I daresay. But you won't, (tahes out 
chair) It wouldn't be cricket. Besides I only told 
you on condition you kept it to yourself, (sits). 

Henry, (exasperated) So I'm to be made a part- 
ner in your fraud. The thing's a swindle and I've 
got to take a share in it. 

Eustace. Swindle? Not a bit. (sits) You've 
lent a hand, without intending it, to reuniting a 
happy family circle. Smoothed the way for the 
Prodigal's return. A very beautiful trait in your 
character. 



5* THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

Henry, (grumpy) What I don^t understand is 
why you told me all this. Why in Heaven^s name 
didn't you keep the whole discreditable story to your- 
self? 

Eustace. The fact is I was pretty sure you'd 
find me out. The Governor's a perfect owl but 
you've got brains — of a kind. You can see a thing 
when it's straight before your nose. So I thought 
I'd let you into the secret from the start, just to keep 
youT mouth shut. 

Henry, (exclamation of impatience) And what 
are you going to do now you are at home ? 

Eustace. Do, my dear chap ? Why nothing. 

CURTAIN. 




^6 




THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 59 



ACT III. 

Scene — The Lawn at Chedleigh Court. Ten days 
have passed since Act II. It is a Saturday and 
the time is after luncheon. The House itself, with 
its French windows on to the lawn, is on the right 
of stage. The iach represents the garden with 
paddocTc beyond hounded hy stream on which 
stands the mill, a picturesque old Tudor structure 
of grey stone. The garden is also supposed to 
stretch away l. into the ivings and there is a path 
up L. leading off to Mill. The other entrance is 
through the French windows R. from house. When 
the curtain rises Eustace is discovered in new 
grey flannel suit in a hammock towards the l. 
swinging indolently. There is a wicker table 
about c. and three or four wicker garden chairs 
with bright red cushions. In one of these 
Henry is seated, reading a newspaper. Eustace 
has cup of coffee in his hand. Henry has one on 
table beside him. Presently Eustace drinks 
some, looking with indolent amusement at his 
brother absorbed in his newspaper. 

Eustace. Not bad coffee, this, (finishes it and be- 
gins to perform acrobatic feat of putting cup and 
saucer on ground without breaking them). 

Henry, (looking up) I daresay, (takes some) 
You'll drop that cup. 



60 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

Eustace. I think not, {puts it successfully on 
ground) . 

Henry. If you leave it there someone's sure to 
put his foot in it. 

Eustace. I'll risk it. 

Henry. Bah! {rises and puts Eustace's cup 
on table) 

Eustace. Thanks, old man. Perhaps it is safer 
there. 

(Henry grunts again and returns to his newspaper. 
Eustace gets cigarette out of pocket and lights 
it indolently.) 

Anything exciting in the paper? Any convulsions 
in Wool? 

Henry. No. 

Eustace. Where's the Governor? He generally 
comes home to luncheon on Saturdays, doesn't he? 

Henry. He's lunching at the Wilmingtons' with 
the mater. He'll he back soon. There's a meeting 
of his Election Committee at four. 

Eustace. Where? 

Henry. Here. 

Eustace. Will he get in ? 

Henry. Faringford thinks so. But it'll be a close 
thing. A very little might turn the scale either way. 

Eustace. Cost him a good deal I suppose? 

Henry. Pretty well. 

Eustace. Panem et Circenses, bread and cir- 
cuses. That's the Tory prescription, isn't it? Par- 
ticularly circuses. 

Henry. I dare say. 



THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 61 

Servant, {ushering Dr. Glaisher from French 
windows R.) Dr. Glaisher to see you, sir. {removes 
cups and exit r.) 

Eustace. How do you do, Doctor, {shaking 
hands) I'm following your prescription you see. 
Rest ! Rest ! There's nothing like it. 

Dr. Glaisher. Just so. I really came for your 
father's committee. I thought it was to be at three 
o'clock. But your man tells me it's not till four. 
So I thought I'd like to look at my patient. Well, 
and how are we to-day? 

(Henry watches this scene with mingled rage and 
disgust to Eustace's huge delight.) 

Eustace. Going on all right thanks. Still a 
little limp perhaps. 

Dr. Glaisher. Just so. The temperature nor- 
mal? No fever? That's right. {Feels pulse) 
Pulse? {pause) Quite regular. Now the tongue. 
Just so. {to Henry) As I should have expected. 
Just as I should have expected. Appetite still good? 

Eustace. Excellent, thanks. 

Dr. Glaisher. You're still taking your glass of 
port at eleven? Just so, oh you'll soon be all right. 

Eustace. Thanks to you. Doctor. 

Dr. Glaisher. Not at all. Not at all. {To 
Henry) He'll soon be himself again now. Sys- 
tem still wants tone a little, wants tone. I'll send 
him round some more of that mixture. Otherwise 
he's all right. 

(Henry grunts), 

Eustace. And you'll look in again in a day or 



62 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

two (Henry rises and goes up) just to see how I 
am, won't you, Doctor ? 

Dr. Glaisher. Certainly, if you wish it. And 
now I must be off. I have a couple of patients near 
here whom I could see in the next half hour and be 
back again by four. Good-bye. Good-bye. Don't 
disturb yourself pray. (Fusses off R.) 

Henry, (savagely) Ass! 

Eustace. My dear chap ! 

Henry. Old Glaisher is a perfect noodle, (down 
stage R.) 

Eustace. Naturally. How much does a little 
country doctor make here-abouts? Four hundred a 
year? Say four hundred and fifty. You can't ex- 
pect a first-rate intellect for that. "Tisn't the market 
rate. 

Henry. I don't expect an absolute idiot. 

Eustace. Glaisher doesn't know anything of 
course, but his manner is magnificently impressive. 
After he's talked to me for five minutes, felt my 
pulse and looked at my tongue I almost begin to won- 
der whether Vm not really ill after all. That's a 
great gift for a doctor! 

Henry. You're perfectly well. Any fool can 
see that merely by looking at you. And old Glaisher 
goes on with his mixture and his glass of port at 
eleven. Bah ! 

(Eustace laughs.) 

And you encourge him. How many visits has he 
paid you? 

Eustace. I don't know. Seven or eight. 

Henry. And every one of them completely un- 
necessary. 



THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 63 

Eustace. Completely unnecessary for me but 
very useful to old Glaisher considering they mean 
half a guinea apiece to him. 

Henry. Which the Governor pays. 

Eustace. Which the Governor pays as you say. 
That's why I do it. Somebody must keep old 
Glaisher going or what would become of all the little 
Glaishers? Here's the Governor with piles of money 
to throw away on Parliamentary elections and simi- 
lar tomfoolery. Why shouldn't I divert some of it 
to old Glaisher. I like the little man. 

Henry. You're awfully generous — with other 
people's money. 

Eustace. I am. Whose money are ijou generous 
with? (Henry goes up stage.) 

(Henry snorts with disapproval. Enter l. from 
garden Mr. fl??^ Mrs. Jackson in outdoor things, 
as from a luncheon party). 

Morning father, {Enter Mrs. Jackson) I've not 
seen you before to-day. You went out before I got 
down. 

Mr. Jackson. {gruffly, sitting down) Good 
morning. 

(Mrs. Jackson having hissed Eustace, sits). 

Eustace. Morning, Mummy, {to Mr. Jackson) 
By the way you've just missed one of your Election 
Committee. 

Mr. Jackson, {alarmed) Not Sir John? It's 
only half-past three. 



64 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

Eustace. No — only little Glaisher. He said he 
was too early. However, as you weren't there he 
came and had a look at me. 

Mrs. Jackson. What did he say, dear? 

Eustace. Said I was getting on all right. He's 
coming to have another look at me in a day or two. 

Mr. Jackson. When does he think you'll be well 
enough to get to work again ? 

Eustace. I don't know. I didn't ask him. 

Mrs. Jackson. Oh, Samuel, it's too soon to think 
of that yet! (Mrs. Jackson sits at c. table) The 
poor boy's only convalescent. Wait till Dr. Glaisher 
has stopped his visits. 

(Snort from Henry). 

Eustace. My dear Henry what extraordinary 
noises you make. It's a terrible habit. You should 
see someone about it. Why not consult Glaisher? 

(Henry goes up angrily.) 

Mr. Jackson, (to his wife) As you please, dear. 
Still I should like to know what Eustace intends to 
do when he is well enough. I'm bound to say he 
looks perfectly well. 

Eustace, (blandly) Appearances are so decep- 
tive, father. 

(Enter Violet l. from house. She has some work 
in her hands)* 

Violet. Got back, Mother dear? (hisses her) 
Enjoyed your lunch ? 



THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 65 

Mrs. Jackson. Very much. It was quite a 
large party. 

Violet. (sitting down) What did you talk 
about ? 

Mrs. Jackson. About your father's election prin- 
cipally. They say Parliment may dissolve any day 
now. What are you making dear? 

Violet. Handkerchiefs. I promised Eustace I'd 
work some initials for him. 

(Goes up stage and sits). 

Mr. Jackson, (returning doggedly to his sub- 
ject) Perhaps you will be good enough to tell me 
what your plans are, Eustace. 

Eustace. I haven't any plans, father. 

Mr. Jackson. You haven't any ? 

Mrs. Jackson. Eustace said the other day he 
thought he would like to be a doctor. 

Mr. Jackson. A doctor ! Nonsense. 

Mrs. Jackson. Well. I only tell you what he 
said. 

Eustace. My remark was not intended to be 
taken literally. I don't seriously propose to enter 
the medical profession. 

Mr. Jackson, (irritably) Do you seriously pro- 
pose anything? 

Eustace. No, father. I don't know that I do. 

Mr. Jackson, (meditatively) I might perhaps 
find you a place in the office. 

Henry, (down to table) (firmly) No father! / 
object to that. 

Violet. Henry ! 



66 THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 

Henry. Yes, I do. I object to the office being 
used as a dumping ground for incompetents. 

Mrs. Jackson, Henry ! Your own brother ! 

Henry. I can't help that. I don't see why the 
Firm should be expected to pay a salary to someone 
who's no earthly use merely because he's my brother. 

Mr. Jackson. Still we might try him. 

Henry. My dear father why not face the truth ? 
You know what Eustace is. We got him into Jenkins' 
office. He made nothing of it. Then he was in the 
Gloucester and Wiltshire Bank. No use there. He 
tried farming. Same result. Finally you gave him 
a thousand pounds to settle in Australia. That was 
five years ago and here he is back again without a 
sixpence. 

Mrs. Jackson. Eustace has been very unlucky. 

Henry, (impatiently) What has luck got to do 
with it? Eustace doesn't work. That's what's the 
matter with him. 

Mrs. Jackson. Still if he had another chance. 

Henry. My dear mother you always believe peo- 
ple ought to have another chance. It's a little mania 
with you. Eustace has had dozens of chances. He's 
made a mess of every one of them. You know that as 
well as I do. 

Mr. Jackson. Yes. There's no use hiding it 
from ourselves. 

Henry. Not the least — as we can't hide it from 
anyone else. 

Mr. Jackson, (after a pause) Well, Eustace, 
what do you think? (Goes up stage.) 

Eustace, (airily) I? Oh, I agree with Henry. 
(lights another cigarette.) 



THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 67 

Mr. Jackson. You what? 

Eustace. I agree with Henry. I think he's di- 
agnosed the case with great accuracy. Henry ought 
to have been a doctor too ! 

Mr. Jackson. {Getting up angrily and making 
an oration) Now look here, Eustace. I've had 
enough of this. You seem to imagine because you've 
been ill 

(Eustace grins at Henry) 

and corne home in rags nothing more in the way of 
work is to be expected of you. You're to loll about 
in a hammock smoking cigarettes and taking not the 
smallest interest in any plans that are suggested for 
your future. Henry says the reason you've always 
been a failure is that you don't work and you say 
you agree with him. Very well. What I have to 
tell you is I'm not going to have you loafing away 
your time here. I disapprove of loafing on principle. 
Both as a public man and as a private man I dis- 
approve of it. There's far too much of it in Eng- 
land to-day. That's where the Germans are ahead 
of us. Young men who ought to be at business or in 
the professions idle away their time and live on their 
parents. That won't do for me. I insist upon your 
getting something to do at once and doing it. I 
insist upon it. If you don't — 

(During the last sentence of this impassioned ora- 
tion Sir John and Lady Faringford and 
Stella enter r. shoum in by Baines.) 

Baines. Sir John and Lady Faringford, Miss 
Faringford. 



68 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

{Instant change of front on the part of the whole 
family, Mr. Jackson stops short in the midst of 
his eloquence and hurriedly substitutes a glassy 
smile for the irascible sternness which accompanied 
his speech. Mrs. Jackson and the others who had 
listened in uncomfortable silence hastily assume 
the conventional simper of politeness as they rise 
to receive their guests. The only person who re- 
mains quite self-possessed is Eustace though he 
too smiles slightly as he gets out of hammoch. 

Eustace, (aside to Henry who comes down) 
Poor old Governor ! Stemmed in full tide. 

(General Greetings.) 

Mrs. Jackson. Dear Lady Faringford. ITow 
nice of you to come ! Stella my dear, (shakes hands 
with her and Sir John.) 

Lady Faringford. (meeting her and then up 
stage chattering to Violet r.) As Sir John was due 
at your father's Committee at four, Stella and I 
thought we would drive him down. 

Mrs. Jackson. You'll stay and have some tea 
now you're here of course ! 

TjAdy Faringford. Thank you. Tea would he 
very pleasant. 

Stella. ITow do you do? (shaking hands with 
IIfnry) And how is the invalid? Getting on well? 

Henry, (grimly) Excellently. 

(Henry stands behind her.) 

Stella. That's right, (shakes hands with Eus- 
tace. To Henry) He really looks hetter, doesn't 
he? Dr. Glaisher says it's been a wonderful recovery. 



THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 69 

(Stella gets c. Mr. Jackson stands by her l. 
Henry down l.) 

Henry. I suppose he does. 

Stella. (To Mr. Jackson) How glad you must 
be to have him home again. 

Mr. Jackson, (tvith ghastly attempt at effusion) 
Its a great pleasure of course. 

Stella. It must be so sad for parents when their 
children go away from them. But I suppose sons 
wiU go away sometimes, however hard their parents 
try to keep them. Won't they? 

Mr. Jackson. That does 'happen sometimes er 
unquestionably, (more Irisldy) And anyhow young 
men can't stay at home always, my dear Miss Farincrt 
ford. They have their own way to make in the 
world. . 

Stella. And so the parents have to let them go. 
It seems hard. But then when they come back^'it 
must be delightful. 

Eustace. It is. 

Sir John. Hadn't we better be going in, Jack- 
son ? I sha'n't be able to stay very long. I have to 
meet my agent at 5.15 sharp to see about some fences. 

Mr. Jackson, (looks at watch) It's barely four 
yet. We'd better wait a minute or two. Glaisher 
will arrive directly and then we can get to work. 

(Eustace taking advantage of Mr. Jackson's speaJc^ 
ing to Sir John moves towards Stella c.) 

Sir John. Ling's advertised to speak at Maytree. 
I see, to-morrow week. 



70 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

Mr. Jackson. Is he? At Maytree? That^s 
rather out of his country. 

(Henry goes up.) 

Sir. John. Yes. He doesn't go down so well in 
the villages. Thank Heaven agriculture is still con- 
servative ! They go to his meetings though. 

Stella. Mr Ling is such a good speaker they say. 

Eustace. My father is a good speaker too when 
he's roused, Miss Faringford. You should have 
heard him ten minutes ago. 

Sir John. What was he speaking on? 

Eustace, {airily) The Unemployed. 

(Mr. Jackson scowls at him. Henry comes down.) 

Sir John. I congratulate you Jackson. -It isn't 
all sons who are so appreciative of their fathers' ef- 
forts. My son never listens to me! 

(Mr. Jackson smiles a sicMy smile,) 

Baines. {announcing) Dr. Glaisher. 

(Eustace and Stella move l. Henry follows them 
and tries to join them without success.) 

Mr. Jackson. Ah, here you are doctor. I began 
to think you weren't coming. 

Mrs. Jackson, {shaking hands) Good after- 
noon. Why didn't you bring Mrs. Glaisher? She 
and I and Lady Faringford could have entertained 
xh other while you were all at your Committee. 



THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 71 

Dr. Glaisher. She would have enjoyed it of all 
things. But I left her at home with the children. 
Tommy has the whooping cough just now and re- 
quires a lot of nursing. 

Mrs. Jackson. Poor little chap. I hope he'll be 
better soon. 

Mr. Jackson, {loohing at watch) Well, well. 
I'm afraid we ought to go in. Come, Sir John. 
Are you ready, Doctor? Shall I lead the way? 
(fusses off importantly) Come Henry. 

Sir John. By all means. 

Mrs. Jackson, {calling after liim) As you are 
going would you mind ringing the bell, Samuel, and 
telling Baines to bring tea out here. 

Mr. Jackson. Very well, my dear. 

{Exit Henry ly lower door. Exeunt r. Mr. Jack- 
son, Sir John, and Doctor. Eustace having 
lifted up the hammock for Violet and Stella 
listens politely to them c.) 

Lady Faringford. {At centre table with Mrs. 
Jackson) I do hope your husband will be elected, 
Mrs. Jackson. Mr. Ling has the most dreadful opin- 
ions about land — and indeed about everything else 
I'm told. But that is of less importance. 

Mrs. Jackson. Indeed? 

Lady Faringford. Oh yes. Only a year ago at 
a meeting of the Parish Council he made a speech 
attacking Sir John quite violently about one of his 
cottages. It was let to young Barrett, quite a res- 
pectable, hard-working man — who afterwards died of 
pneumonia. Mr. Ling declared the cottage was damp 



72 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

and not fit for anyone to live in. So ridiculous of 
him ! As if all cottages were not damp. The absurd 
part of it was that afterwards when Mrs. Barrett 
was left a widow and Sir John gave her notice be- 
cause she couldn't pay her rent and he wanted to 
convert the cottage into pig styes Mr. Ling was 
equally indignant and seemed to think we ought to 
find Mrs. Barrett another house! I don't think he 
can be quite right in his head. 

(Eustace goes up stage as Baines and footman 
bring out tea on large tray and put it on table.) 

Violet, (rising) Shall I make the tea, mother? 
Mrs. Jackson. If you please, dear. 

(Stella down r. Eustace stands by her) 

Eustace. What do you think about damp cot- 
tages, Miss Faringford ? Do you think they ought 
to be left standing in order that the laborer may live 
in them — and have pneumonia. Or be pulled down 
in order that the laborer may have no where to live 
at all? 

(Violet helps Lady Faringford to tea.) 

Stella (sits) I don't know. I think it's dread- 
ful there should be damp cottages anywhere. 

Eustace. That would never do. There must be 
good cottages and bad cottages in order that the 
strong may get the good cottages and the weak the 
bad. 



THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 73 

Stella. You mean in order that the strong may 
have the bad cottages and the weak the good. They 
need them more. 

Violet. Mother. 

Eustace. That would be quite unscientific. No, 
the strong must have the good cottages in order that 
they may grow stronger, and the weak must have the 
bad cottages in order that they may die off. Survival 
of the fittest you know. 

Stella. How horrible. 

Eustace. Yes, but how necessary! 

Lady Faringford. Come over here, Stella. You 
have the sun on your face there. 

Stella, (rising univillingly) Very well, mamma. 
{goes and sits l.) 

Lady Faringford. By the way, Mrs. Jackson, 
have you heard about poor Miss Higgs, who used to 
keiep the school at Little Chedleigh and play the har- 
monium so badly on Sunda3^s? You remember her? 
quite a good creature, knew all kinds of subjects and 
never expected one to take any notice of her. So of 
course one never did. Well, two years ago (to Eus- 
tace who offers her cake) No, thank you, . , . 
an Aunt died and left her a little money and Miss 
Higgs retired and went to live in Gloucester. One of 
those unattractive houses near the canal. But she 
seems to have been quite incapable of managing 
money. Put it into a gold mine, I believe, or gave it 
to her solicitor to invest — which comes to the same 
thing — and lost every penny. 

Mrs. Jackson. Oh. Poor Miss Higgs. What a 
sad thing. 

Lady Faringford. Fortunately she was so af- 



74 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

fectcd by her loss that she drowned herself in the 
canal at the bottom of her garden. Otherwise I'm 
afraid some sort of a subscription would have had to 
be got up for her. 

(Eustace gets another cup of tea from Violet and 
talces advantage of the move to sit down hy Stella. 
He at once begins to talh to her in dumb show.) 

Violet. I liked Miss Higgs very much, Lady 
Faringford. 

{From this point to l. c. exit. Lady Faringford 
Iceeps watching Stella out of the comer of her eye 
and showing by her manner her annoyance at Eus- 
tace's marked attentions to her daughter. Mrs. 
Jackson and Violet are completely unconscious 
of this by-play.) 

Lady Faringford, So did quite a number of 
people, I'm told. Slie was quite a good creature as 
I said, much superior to the young woman who has 
succeeded her at Little Chedleigh. (Takes tea from 
Violet) I wanted them to give the place to my 
maid Dawkins who is getting rather past her work 
and really could have taught everything that is neces- 
sary or wholesome for the lower orders to learn, 
though I daresay she would have had some difficulty 
with the harmonium — at first. However they pre- 
ferred to get down a young person from London with 
the most elaborate qualifications. So highly educated 
in fact that I hoar she can't teach at all. 

Mrs. Jackson. How very awkward. 



THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 75 

Lady Faringford. It is indeed. {Here Eustace 
sits by Stella. Talces his tea from Violet) 
Stella ! 

Stella. Yes, mamma. 

Lady Faringford. Say good-bye to Mrs. Jackson, 
my dear. We really must be going, {rising) 

Mrs. Jackson, {rising also) Shall I let Sir 
John know you are ready? 

Lady Faringford. Pray don't trouble. We can 
pick him up as we go through the house. Good-bye, 
Mrs. Jackson, {to Eustace, shaking haiids) Good- 
bye. When do you go back to Australia ? Quite soon 
I hope. Come Stella. 

Stella, {shaking hands) Good-bye, Mr. Jackson. 

{Exeunt Lady Faringford and Stella r. escorted 
hy Violet. A pause, Eustace sits at centre table 
indolently.) 

Eustace. Clever woman that. 

Mrs. Jackson. Is she, dear? I hadn't noticed. 
(Mrs. Jackson sits at c. table) 

Eustace. Yes. We're all of us selfish. But most 
of us make an effort to conceal the fact. With the 
result that we are always being asked to do something 
for somebody and having to invent elaborate ex- 
cuses for not doing it. And that makes us very un- 
popular. For everyone hates asking for anything — 
unless he gets it. But Lady Faringford proclaims 
her selfishness so openly that no one ever dreams of 
asking her to do things. It would be tempting Provi- 
dence. With the result that I expect she's quite a 
popular woman. 



76 THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 

Mrs. Jackson. .I^m so glad you like Lady Fat- 
ingford, dear. Your father has the highest opinion 
of her. 

Eustace. The Governor never could see an inch 
before his nose. 

Mrs. Jackson. Can't he, dear? He has never said 
anything about it. 

Eustace, (affectionately) Dear Mother! (Vio- 
let returns R.) Seen the Gorgon safely off the 
premises ? 

Violet, (laughing) Yes, — and Sir John. 

Mrs. Jackson. The committee was over then ? 

Violet. It is now — as Lady Faringford insisted 
on carrying off the chairman. Here's father. 

(Enter Mr. Jackson and Henry followed hy Baines 
with letters on salver. Baines hands letters three 
to Mr. Jackson, two to Mrs. Jackson, one to 
Violet, Henry sits.) 

Baines. Shall I take away, Madam? 

Mrs. Jackson. Wait a moment, (to Mr. Jack- 
son) Will you have any tea, Samuel? 

Mr. Jackson, (opening long envelope and read- 
ing papers) No. We had some indoors. 

Mrs. Jackson, (to Baines) Yes, you can take 
away, (to Mr. Jackson) Did you have a successful 
meeting? (Baines and footman take away tea) 

Mr. Jackson. (standing hy table, reading still) 
Eh ? Oh yes. 

Mrs. Jackson, (to Henry) What a pity Sir 
John had to go. 

Henry, (hy his father) It didn't matter. We'd 
pretty nearly got through our business. (Mrs. Jack- 



THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 11 

SON opens letter and becomes absoi'hed in its con- 
tents) 

Mr. Jackson, (handing papers to Henry) You'd 
better look through these. They're from Fisher & 
Thompson. It's about Wenhams' Mill. The sale is 
next week. 

Henry, (nods) Very well. 

Mr. Jackson, (sits c. at tahle) Now, Eustace 
I want to have a serious talk with you. 

Eustace. Not again, father ! 

Mr. Jackson, (puzzled) What do you mean ? 

Eustace. Couldn't you put it off till to-morrow ? 
I'm hardly well enough to talk seriously twice in one 
day. 

(Violet comes down to cliair r.) 

Mr. Jackson. Nonsense, Sir. You're perfectly 
well. Glaisher says there's no longer the slightest 
cause for anxiety. 

Eustace. Traitor ! 

Mr. Jackson. What, Sir ? 

Eustace. Nothing, father. 

Mr. Jackson. As I told you before tea I'm not 
going to have you idling away your time here. The 
question is what are we to do? 

Eustace. Just so, father. 

Mr. Jackson. I mean what are you to do? 
(pause, no remark from Eustace) Lady Faring- 
ford said as she went away you ought to go back to 
Australia. She said it was a thousand pities for 
any young man not to go to Australia. 

Mrs. Jackson. Eustace was just saying how 
clever Lady Faringford was when you came out. 



H THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

Mr. Jackson. I'm glad to hear it. Well what do 
you think? 

Eustace. About Australia? 

Mr. Jackson. Yes. 

Eustace. I don't think anything about it. 

Mr. Jackson. Would you like to go out there 
again ? 

Eustace. No, I shouldn't. I've been there once. 
It was an utter failure. 

Mr. Jackson. You were a failure, you mean. 

Eustace. As you please. Anyway it was no good 
and I had to work as a navvy on the railway. I don't 
propose to do that again. 

Henry, (looking up) Other people do well in 
Australia. 

Eustace. Other people do well in England. Or 
rather the same people do well in both. 

Mr. Jackson, (peevishly) What do you mean? 

Eustace. Simply that the kind of qualities which 
make for success in one country make for success in 
another. It's just as easy to fail in Sydney as in 
London. I've done it and I know. 

Mrs. Jackson, (who has just opened her second 
letter) A letter from Janet. She is going to be at 
Gloucester next week and would like to come over 
to see us on Friday. We aren't going out on that 
day are we Violet? (Mr. Jackson impatient at this 
interruption opens one of the letters in his hand and 
glances at it) 

Violet. No, mother. 

Mrs. Jackson. That will do then. She'd better 
come to luncheon, (rises) I'll write and tell her 
at once before I forget. 



TtttJ RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 79 

Violet. Shall I do it, mother? 

Mrs. Jackson. No, dear. I can manage it. 

{Exit R. to house.) 

Mr. Jackson, (tulio has opened one letter and 
glanced at it opens second) Well ! (strikes table 
with clenched fist) 

Violet. What is it, father? 

Mr. Jackson. What's the meaning of this I 
wonder ! Barton must be out of his senses. 

Violet. Barton ? 

Mr. Jackson. Yes, Barton, the tailor. Why 
does he send me in a bill like this? (Henry conies 
down L. of Mr. Jackson) Twenty-five pounds. 
And I've had nothing from him since Easter. Listen 
to this. One lounge suit four guineas, one dress suit 
eight guineas, one flannel suit three pounds ten, an- 
other lounge suit four guineas. One frock coat and 
waistcoat four guineas, one pair of trousers one 
guinea. Total twenty-five pounds eleven. 

Eustace. They're mine, father. 

Mr. Jackson. What, sir ! 

Eustace. Some clothes I ordered. I told him to 
send the bill to you. That's all right, isn't it. 

Mr. Jackson. (exploding) All right! Cer- 
tainly not, sir. It's very far from all right. It's a 
great liberty. 

Eustace. My dear father the bill must be sent in 
to somebody. 

Mr. Jackson. And why not to you, pray? 

Eustace. What would be the good of that father? 
I've nothing to pay it with. 



go THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 

Mr. Jackson, (fuming) Then you shouldn't 
have ordered the things. 

Eustace. But I must wear something. I couldn't 
go on wearing Henry's things indefinitely. It's hard 
on him! (Henry snorts) My dear Henry! 

(Henry goes up.) 

Mr. Jackson. But what's become of all the 
clothes you had? You must have had some clothes. 

Eustace, (shrugs) They're in London — and in 
rags. 

Mr. Jackson. Now look here, Eustace. I'm not 
going to have this. I'm not going to have a son of 
mine running up bills here. 

Eustace. All right, father. I'm quite willing to 
pay for the things — if you give me the money. 

Mr. Jackson. I shall not give you the money, sir. 
If you want money you must earn it. 

Eustace. That doesn't take us very far. 

Mr. Jackson. You'll disgrace me. 

(Mr. Jackson rises and invoke: the heavens. 
Henry goes up r.) 

That's what will happen. I insist on your paying 
Barton and giving me your word of honor never to 
get anything on credit here again, (thrusts hill into 
Eustace's hand, then tramps about angrily) 

Eustace. I've no objection. I don't run up 
tailors' bills for pleasure. I'd just as soon pay ready 
money as you would. Only I haven't got it. Give me 
twenty pounds — No twenty-five pounds eleven — and 
I'll pay Barton to-morrow. 



THE RETURN OF THS t>RODtGAL. gl 

Mr. Jackson. I decline to give you money. I 
decline. Your request is impudent. 

Eustace. Let's keep our tempers, father. 

Mr. Jackson. What, sir? 

Eustace. I suggested we should keep our 
tempers. That's all. 

Mr. Jackson. This is intolerable. I disown 
you, sir. I disown you. 

Violet. Father ! 

Mr. Jackson. Be silent, Violet, (to Eustace) 
I'll have nothing more to do with you. I'll pay this 
debt to Barton and any others you may have incurred 
since you came back. After that I've done with you. 
Leave my house at once. 

Eustace, (rising, very calm and first putting 
chair in its place then speaking with ominous dis- 
tinctness) Very well, father. I'll go if you wish it. 
(movement for Mr. Jackson) But I warn you if I 
do go it will be to the nearest workhouse ! 

Mr. Jackson, (fuming) That's your affair. It 
has nothing to do with me. (turns away) 

Eustace. I question that. It rather knocks your 
election prospects on the head, I fancy. 

Mr. Jackson, (swinging round) Eh? What? 

Eustace. You don't seriously suppose if I do this 
you'll be returned for Parliament? If you do you 
don't know the British Electorate. (Henry walks 
towards l.) This is going to be a scandal, a scandal 
worth five hundred votes to the other side. And the 
last man's majority was only fifty. Oh no, my dear 
father, if it comes out that the son of the rich Con- 
servative Candidate is in the local workhouse, good- 
bye to your chances in this constituency. 



I 



S2 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. ^a 

Henry. You wouldn't dare! 

Eustace. Dare? jSTonsense. What have I to 
lose? 

Henry. But this is infamous. It's blackmail. 

Eustace. Call it what you like. It's what I 
propose to do if you force me to it. 

Violet. Eustace ! You couldn't be so wicked ! 

Eustace. My dear Vi have I any choice? 
Here am I absolutely penniless. The Governor flies 
into a rage because I order some clothes from his 
tailor and turns me into the street. What am I to 
do? I've no profession, no business I can turn my 
hand to. I might take to manual labor, break 
stones on the road. But that would only bring 
equal discredit on this highly respectable family. In 
England sons of wealthy cloth manufacturers don't 
work with their hands. Besides I don't like work. 
So there's nothing left but to beg. If I beg in the 
street the police will take me up. Therefore I must 
beg from my relations. If they refuse me I must go 
on the Parish. 

Henry. Father this is monstrous. I wouldn't 
submit to it if I were you. If he wants to prevent 
your election let him. I advise you to refuse, (down 
hy table) 

Eustace. All right. But it knocks your pros- 
pects on the head too my dear Henry, social advance- 
ment and love's young dream you know. Miss Far- 
ingford won't marry you if this happens. Her 
mother won't let her. You're not so rich as all that. 
And if her mother would, Stella wouldn't. Stella 
rather likes me. In fact I think she likes me better 



THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 8?. 

than she docs you at present. I'm not absolutely cer- 
tain she wouldn't marry me if I asked her. 

Henry. Lady Faringfoid would forbid her. 

Eustace. Perhaps we shouldn't consult her. 
Anyhow if you leave me to eat skilly in Chedleigh 
Workhouse, Stella won't accept you. I lay you ten 
to one on it. (a pause. Gong rings) Well, what do 
you say? (Long silence, Mr. Jackson obviously 
not hnowing what to do. Henry equaVy uncom- 
fortahJe) Kothing? (still silence) You Henry, 
you're full of resource. What do you think? (still 
silence. With a shrug.) Well first gong's gone. I 
shall go and dress for dinner, (strolls off r.) 

(Henry snorts and goes up stage.) 

Curtain. 



84 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 



ACT IV. 

Scene: — The drawing room at Chedleigh as in Act 
I. Occasional table near sofa. When Curtain 
rises Mrs. Jackson and Violet are discovered. 
Violet is playing softly at piano, Mrs. Jackson 
sitting by fireplace nodding over a piece of work of 
some kind. Presently enter Eustace l. Violet 
stops playing, closes piano and comes down, later 
takes up handkerchief she is working for Eustace. 
Eustace strolls to his mother. 

Mrs. Jackson, (waking up, drowsily) Is that 
you, Eustace? Where's your father? 

Eustace. In the library with Henry. 

Mrs. Jackson. Talking business? 

Eustace, (nods) Yes. 

Mrs. Jackson. Can you see the time, Vi? 

Violet. (sitting by fireplace) Nearly ten, 
mother dear. 

Mrs. Jackson. So late ! They must be discussing 
something very important. 

Eustace, (grimly) They are. 
. Mrs. Jackson. Have they been long in the 
library? 

Eustace. They went directly you and Vi left 
the table, 



THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 85 

Mrs. Jackson- And you've been alone in the 
dining-room all that time? Why didn't you come in 
to us? 

Eustace. I thought they might want to consult 

me. 

Mrs. Jackson. About business? I'm so glad. 
I'm sure you would be most useful in the business if 
you tried, though Henry doesn't think so. 

Eustace. Are you, mother? 

Mrs. Jackson. Of course. Why not? Henry is. 
And you always learnt your lessons far quicker than 
Henry when you were a boy. 

Eustace, (laying hand on her shoulder) Flat- 
terer ! 

Mrs. Jackson, (putting worh into worh hasTcet) 
Well, I don't think I'll stay up any longer. (Rises) 
And I do hope Henry won't keep your father up too 
late. It can't be good for him. (kisses Eustace) 
Good-night, dear. Sleep well. Are you coming, 
Violet? (Usses her) 

Violet. Directly, mother. 

(Eustace holds door open for her to go out. Then 
comes slowhj down and sits in chair hy Violet at 
centre table.) 

Eustace. Dear old mother. She's not clever, 
but for real goodness of heart I don't know her equal. 

Violet, (impatiently) Clever! I'm sick of 
cleverness. What's the good of it? You're clever. 
What has it done for you ? 

Eustace. Kept me out of prison. That's always 
. something. 



86 THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 

(Violet makes gesture of protest.) 

Oh yes, it has. There have been times when I was 
so hard up I felt I would do anything, anything, just 
for a square meal. If I had been a stupid man I 
should have done it. I should have robbed a till or 
forged a cheque, and that would have been the end 
of me. Fortunately I'd brains enough to realise that 
that kind of thing always gets found out. So here I 
am, still a blameless member of society. 

(Violet says nothing, hut goes on working. Pause.) 

The mater hasn't been told? 

Violet. About what happened before dinner? 
No. 

Eustace. I'm glad of that. 

Violet. Why ? 

Eustace. My dear Vi, I'm not absolutely in- 
human. Because I'm fond of her, of course, and 
don't like giving her pain. 

Violet. She'll have to know sooner or later. 

Eustace. Then I'd rather it was later, in fact 
when I'm not here. If anybody has got to suffer on 
my account, I'd rather not see it. 

Violet. And you call Lady Faringford selfish ! 

Eustace, (carelessly) Yes. It's a quality I par- 
ticularly dislike — in others, (pause) 

Violet. I can't understand you. As a boy you 
were so different. You were kind and affectionate 
and thoughtful for others. 

Eustace, (shrugs) I dare say. 

Violet. And now — ! Think what you have 
made cf your life! You had good abilities. You 



I 



THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 87 

might have done almost anything if you had only 
tried. You might have been a successful, honorable 
man with an assured position and a record you could 
be proud of. You miight. . . . 

Eustace, (putting his fingers in his ears) Stop, 
Vi. Stop. I tell you. I won't listen to you. 

Violet, (surprised) Why not? 

Eustace, (doggedly) Because I won't. All that 
is over. What's past is past. I have to live my life 
now. Do you suppose it would make it any easier 
for me to grizzle over wasted opportunities? No! 
As each year passes I turn over the page and forget 
it. 

Violet, (luondering) And do yon never look 
back ? 

Eustace, (with a slight shiver) Never! If I 
did I should have drowned myself long ago. 

Violet, (with horror) Eustace! 

Eustace. Oh, my dear Vi, it's all very well 
for you to preach, but you don't understand. It's 
easy enough for you living comfortably here at home 
working for your bazaars and visiting your old wo- 
men. Your life slips away in a quiet round of small 
duties, paying calls with the mater, pouring out the 
governor's coffee. One day Just like another. 
You've no anxieties, no temptations. The lines have 
fallen to you in pleasant places. And you think you 
can sit in judgment on me ! 

Violet, (quietly) You think my life happier 
than yours then? 

Eustace. Isn't it? 

Violet. No. Your life is your own. You can do 
as you please with it, use it or waste it as you think 



8S THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 

best. You are free. I am not. You think, because 
I stay quietly at home doing the duty that lies near- 
est me and not crying out against fate, therefore I've 
nothing more to wish for! Would you be happy, 
do you suppose, if you were in my case? 1 live here 
down in Chedleigh from year's end to year's end. 
Mother never leaves home. She doesn't care to pay 
visits. So I cannot either. I may sometimes get 
away for a few days, a week, perhaps, but very seldom. 
And as mother grows older I shall go less. Soon 
people will give up asking me when they find T al- 
ways refuse. And so I shall be left here alone with 
no friends, no real companionship, merely one of the 
family obliged to know the people they know, visit 
the people they visit, not a grown woman with in- 
terests of her own and a life to order as she pleases. 

Eustace. But youll marry — 

Violet. Marry ! What chance have I of marry- 
ing now? When we hadn't so much money and 
Henry and father weren't so set on taking a jiosition 
in tlie County, tliere was some chance for me. Now 
there is none. It's all very well for Henry. He is a 
partner in the firm. He will be a very rich man. He 
can marry Stella Faringford. Oh, we are to be 
great people! But you don't find Sir John Faring- 
ford's son proposing to 7nc! No! He wants a girl 
of his own class or else an heiress, not a manufac- 
turer's daughter with a few thousand pounds. So 
the great peojdc won't marry me and I mustn't marry 
the little })eople. Father wouldn't like it. He hardly 
lets mother ask them to the house now-a-days. And 
so the years go by and my youth with them, and I 
know it will be like this always, always. 



THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 89 

Eustace. Foor old Vi ! And 1 thought you 
were quite contented with your bazaars and your old 
v/omen. Why don't you speak to the mater? 

Violet, {resuming her work) What's the use? 
Mother wouldn't understand. She married when she 
was twenty-one. Slie doesn't know what it is for a 
girl to go on living at home long after she's grown 
up and ought to have a house of her own. So I stay 
on here knitting socks for old Allen and working 
yovr handkerchiefs and here I shall stay till mother 
and father are both dead. . . . And then it will 
be too late. 

Eustace. Poor old Vi ! {a pause) 

Do you know you make me feel rather mean? 
Henry and the Governor I can stand up to. They're 
very much like me. We belong to the predatory type. 
Only they're more successful tlian I am. They live 
on their work-people. I propose to live on them. 
We're birds of a feather. But you're different. I 
suppose you get it from the mater. 

Violet. Why are you so bitter against your 
father ? 

Eustace. Am I? 

Violet. Yes. Just now. And this afternoon. 

Eustace, (shrugs) Oh that— ! Well the fact is 
I wanted to bring things to a head. I feel I can't 
stay here. I must get away. 

Violet. W^hy ? 

Eustace. For lots of reasons. I can't stand this 
place— I've outgrown it I suppose. (Pause) And 
then there's Stella. . . . 

Violet. Stella ? 

Eustace. Yes. If I were here much longer I 



90 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

might be falling in love vviili Stella, (tvalls over to 
Violet and stands hy her) And that wouldn't be 
fair to Henry. After all he was first in the field. 
And it wouldn't be fair to her either. I'm not fit to 
marry a girl like that. No. I must get away. 

Violet. Poor Eustace. 

Eustace. Oh, you needn't pity me. I shall get 
along somehow. My life hasn't been successful. It 
hasn't even been honorable. But it's been devilish 
interesting, {haclc at c.) 

{Enter Mr. Jackson and Henry l.) 

Mr. Jackson. You here, Vi? I thought you'd 
have gone to bed. Your mother went long ago, I 
expect ? 

Violet. Only a few minutes. 

Mr. Jackson. Well run away now, dear. It's 
late. 

Violet. Very well, father. {gathers up her 
things and rises) Good-night. {kisses him) Good 
night, Henry. Good-night, Eustace. 

Eustace, {taking her hand) Good-night, Vi. 
And good-bye. {holds open door for her) 

{She kisses him and exit l.) 

{While Violet has been getting her things together, 
Mr. Jackson has been showing obvious signs of 
nervous impatience. Even Henry has fidgeted. 
When Violet has gone Eustace sits on settee l.) 

Eustace. Well? 

Mr. Jackson. Ahem ! We have been in consulta- 



THfi ttETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 91 

tion, your brother and I, as to the right course to 
adopt with regard to you. 
Eustace, {nods) So I supposed. 

(Henry sits in chair at top table.) 

Mr. Jackson. After the extraordinary and un- 
dutiful attitude you took up this afternoon, I might 
naturally have declined all further relations with you. 
But .... 

Eustace, {matter of fact) But as that course 
might prove almost as disagreeable for yourself as it 
would for me, you naturally thought better of it. 
Let's get on. 

Mr. Jackson, {rearing under this touch of the 
spur, hut mastering himself) I might point out to 
you, that we, your mother and I, have never failed 
in our duty by you. We have been indulgent parents. 
You were sent to a first-rate school. Nothing was 
spared that could make you a prosperous and success- 
ful man. But I won't speak of that. 

Eustace, {drily) Thanks, father. 

Mr. Jackson, {running on) I might point out 
that we have given you a score of good chances for 
establishing yourself in a satisfactory position and 
you have failed to profit by them, I might remind 
you that since you returned to this roof 

Eustace. {impatiently) My dear father, I 
thought you were going to leave that part out ? And 
I do wish you wouldn't begin talking about your 
roof. When people refer to their roof, I always know 
they're going to suggest something quite unpractical. 
In ordinary times they don't soar above the ceiling. 



92 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

But in moments of fervor off goes the roof! Let's 
come to the point. 

Mr. Jackson, (collecting himself again) I will 
do so at once. Your brother and I feel that little as 
you have deserved this consideration at my hands 
and wholly as you have forfeited all claim to further 
assistance both by your past failures and by your 
conduct this afternoon you should yet be given one 
more chance. 

(During the latter part of this speech and the begin- 
fling of the next, Eustace insensibly begins to 
beat time to his father's impassioned antithesis.) 

Eustace. Come, that's satisfactory. 

Mr. Jackson. Five years ago when, after re- 
peated failures on your part, after paying your debts 
more than once and finding you openings again and 
again, I sent you to Australia, I gave you a thousand 
pounds to make a career for yourself. I told you that 
was the last sum of money you would have from me 
during my lifetime. What may or may not come to 
you after my death is another matter. And I gave it 
you on the express stipulation that if you lost or 
squandered it you were not to write for more. 

Eustace. I kept that stipulation. 

Mr. Jackson. That is so. I now propose to do 
again what I did five years ago. I propose to send 
you ])ack to Australia with a thousand pounds. 

Henry, (looking up from book, tvhich he has been 
appearing to read) To be paid to you after your 
arrival there. 

Mr. Jackson. Quite so. I will send the thousa^d 



THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 93 

pounds, less the cost of your passage, to an agent to 
be paid to you on your landing. In return you are 
to promise not to come back to this country with- 
out my express permission. I think you will agree 
with me that the course I am taking is a kinder one 
than you deserve. Few fathers would do as much. 
I might have named a smaller sum. But I prefer to 
err on the generous side. 

Eustace, (nodding) Quite so. And what do 
you propose that I should do with a thousand 
pounds ? 

Mr. Jackson. That is for you to decide. You 
might start in business. 

Eustace. I've tried that. 

Mr. Jackson. Sheep farming. 

Eustace. I've tried that. 

Mr. Jackson. Gold mining. 

Eustace. I've tried that. 

Mr. Jackson. Well, well, any line which you 
think offers you a favorable opening. 

Eustace, (insinuatingly) And which line is 
that? 

Mr. Jackson, (irritably) I don't know. 

Eustace. No more do I. (pause) No, father, it 
would be absurd for me to accept your offer, because 
it isn't practical. It would only be throwing your 
money away. It would do me no good, and cause you 
hearfelt distress. 

Mr. Jackson. Nonsense. Other young fellows 
go out to Australia with less than a thousand pounds 
and make fortunes, far less. Why shouldn't you ? 

Eustace. Why indeed? However we must keep 
to the point. They make fortunes. I don't. 



94 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

Mr. Jackson, (exasperated) In fact, theyVe 
active and energetic, you're useless and worthless. 
Where other people by thrift and enterprise and 
steady application make money, you only lose it. 

Eustace. Exactly. I lose it. And doubtless for 
lack of the qualities you mention. What then? 
Granted I am all you say how does that help us? 
Here I am, alive, and requiring food at the customary 
intervals. Who is going to give it me? 

(Henry snorts.) 
Eeally, Henry! 

Mr. Jackson, (hothj) That is to say you want 
to go through life sponging on your family instead 
of working for your living like an honest man. 

Eustace, (getting annoyed, rises and goes across 
to his father) Look here, father, hadn't we better 
drop all that stuff about umnting to sponge on one's 
family and the rest of it. Nobody wants to sponge on 
other people. The idea's preposterous. We all tvant 
to be prosperous and highly respected members of 
Society like you and Henry, with more money than 
we know what to do with, with a seat in Parliament 
and a wife out of the Baronetage. That's what we 
want! And if we haven't the luck or the brains or 
the energy to get it, you needn't call us names. You 
don't suppose I prefer losing money to making it, 
do you? You don't suppose if I had my choice I 
should drift about the world adding up accounts in a 
filthy Hong Kong bank or playing steward on a 
filthier ocean liner? You can't be so ridiculous. 
(Henry comes down) I'm good for nothing as you 
say. I've no push, no initiative, no staying power. I 



THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 95 

shall never be anything but a failure. But don't 
imagine I like it! You seem to think you've a 
terrible grievance because I'm a ne'er-do-well and 
come to you for money^ but the real grievance is mine. 

Henry, (tartly) If 3^ou don't like coming on 
your family for money, you needn't do it. (he then 
comes down r.) 

Eustace, {impatiently) It's not what I do but 
what I am that is the difficulty. What does it matter 
what one does? It's done and then it's over and one 
can forget it. The real tragedy is what one is. Be- 
cause one can't escape from that. It's always there, 
the bundle of passions, weaknesses, stupidities, that 
one calls character, waiting to trip one up. Look at 
the Governor, that pillar of rectitude and business 
ability ! Do 3^ou suppose li e could be like me if he 
tried. Of course not. Nor could I be like him. 

Mr. Jackson. Have you no will? 

Eustace. No. Have you ? Have we any of us ? 
{sits) Aren't \yq just the creatures of our upbring- 
ing, of circumstance, of our physical constitution? 
We are launched on the stream at our birth. Some 
of us can swim against the current. Those who can't, 
it washes away. 

{There is a pause. Henry looTcs sullen, Mr. Jack- 
son puzzled. Eustace ivho has grown rather 
heated, regains his composure.) 

Mr. Jackson. Well, what's to be done with you ? 

Eustace. I'm afraid you'll have to keep me. 
You're my father, you know. You've brought into 
the world a worthless and useless human being. I 
think those were your adjectives ? You're respo: jible. 



96 THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 

Mr. Jackson. Is that any reason why I should 
support you? 

Eustace. No, father. Frankly I don't think it is. 
I think your sensible course would be to put me 
quietly out of this wicked world or hire someone else 
to do so. I'm a bad egg. I shall never hatch into 
anything that will do you the smallest credit. Your 
sensible course is to destroy me. But you daren't do 
that. Social convention won't allow you; the law 
would make a fuss. Indeed the law won't even allow 
me to put an end to myself and save you the trouble. 
I should be rescued, very wet and draggled, from the 
muddy waters of the Ched by the solitary police- 
man, who seems to have nothing else to do, but to 
stand about rescuing jToople who had much better be 
left to drown. I should be haled before the Magis- 
trates — you're a magistrate yourself now, father. 
YouM be there — T should be given a solemn lecture 
and then " handed over to my friends " — that's you 
again, father — who would undertake to look after me 
in future. And I only hope you would be able to con- 
ceal your annoyance at my rescue from the prying 
eyes of your brother justices! 

Mr. Jackson. You've no right to say that. 
You've no right to suggest that I wish you were 
dead. 

Eustace, {genialhj) Of course you do. You 
want me to go to Australia where you'll never hear 
of me again, where in fact I shall be dead to you. 
What's the difference? {a pause) 

Mr. Jackson. Well, I won't argue with you. 
The question is what do you propose ? 

Eustace, (after a moment's thought) In the 



THOBJ RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 97 

circumstances, I think your wisest course will be 
to make me an allowance, say three hundred a year, 
paid quarterly. Then I'll go away and live quietly 
in London and you'll be rid of me. 

Mr. Jackson, (angry again) I refuse, sir, I re- 
fuse absolutely. The suggestion is utterly shameless. 

Eustace. I dare say. But it's perfectly sensible. 
I appeal to Henry. 

Henry. Father, I think you'd better do as he 
says. If you gave him a thousand pounds as we in- 
tended, he'd only lose it. Better make him an al- 
lowance. Then you can always stop it if he doesn't 
behave himself. It's a shameless proposal, as you say, 
but it's practical. 

Eustace. Bravo, Henry, I always said you had 
brains. That's exactly it. Shameless but eminently 
practical. 

Mr. Jackson, {grumbling) What I can't see is 
why I should allow you this money. 

(Henry turns away annoyed and sits.) 
Here's Henry who's perfectly satisfactory, and has 
never caused me a moment's anxiety. I don't give 
him money. Whereas you who have never caused me 
anything else expect me to keep you for the remainder 
of your life. 

Eustace. It is unreasonable, isn't it. But we live 
in a humanitarian age. We coddle the sick and we 
keep alive the imbecile. We shall soon come to 
pensioning the idle and the dissolute. You're only 
a little in advance of the times. England is covered 
with hospitals for the incurably diseased and asylums 
for the incurably mad. If a tenth of the money were 
spent on putting such people out of the world and the 



9^ THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 

rest were used in preventing the healthy people from 
falling sick, and the sane people from starving, we 
should be a wholesomer nation. 

Mr. Jackson, (after a pause) Well, if Henry 
thinks so I suppose I must give you an allowance. 
But I won't go beyond two hundred. 

Eustace. I can't keep out of debt on two hun- 
dred. 

Mr. Jackson. Two hundred and fifty then. 

Eustace, (persuasively) Three hundred. 

Mr. Jackson. Two hundred and fifty. Not a 
penny more, (breaking out again) Why, I'd starve 
before I consented to sponge on my family as you 
are doing. 

Eustace, (quietly) Ah. You evidently don't 
know much about starving, father I If you write a 
cheque for my first quarter now I can catch the 11.15 
tip. 

Mr. Jackson. You can't go to-night. You're not 
packed. And you'll want to say good-bye to your 
mother. 

Eustace. I think not. As I'm to go, it had bet- 
ter be as suddenly as I came. It saves such a lot of 
explanations. You can send my things after me to 
London. 

Mr. Jackson. (a pause) Very well, (on 
Eustace's l.) I'll go and write you a cheque. 

(Exit R.) 

(A long pause.) 

Henry, (bitterly) Well, you've got what you 
Wanted. 



THE RETURN OF THE PRODICAL. 99 

Eustace, (airily) Thanks to you, my dear fel- 
lov/. 

Henry. What a sordid plot it has been ! To make 
your way into this house by a trick with the deliber- 
ate intention of blackmailing your own father. 

Eustace. You're wrong. The blackmail as you 
call it was an afterthought. When I made my way 
into this house in the way you so accurately describe 
my designs went no further than getting some decent 
food and a house over my head for a few days. But 
when I got here and found you all so infernally pros- 
perous, the G(Tvernor flinging money about over get- 
ting into Parliament, you intending to marry Far- 
ingford's daughter, I thought I'd put in for a share 
of the plunder. 

Henry, (disgusted) Well, you've succeeded, suc- 
ceeded because you've neither honor nor conscience 
about you. 

Eustace. No. I've succeeded because you're a 
snob and the Governor's a snob, and that put you 
both in my power. I might have been as poor and 
as unscrupulous as you please without getting a half- 
penny out of either of you. Luckily the Governor's 
political ambitions and your social ambitions gave 
me the pull over you and I used it. 

Henry. (rises and goes towards Eustace) 
Faugh! — (fiercely) You understand of course that 
if you are to have this allowance it is on the express 
condition that you give up all thoughts of Miss Far- 
ingford, give them up absolutely. 

Eustace. By all means. What should I be about, 
marrying a penniless girl like Stella, 



166 THE RETURN OP THE PRODIGAL. 

Henry. There's nothing you won't do for money ! 
Even to giving up the girl you pretend to care for. 

Eustace, (shrugs) I daresay. Besides what 
would Stella be about marrying a penniless devil 
like me ? 

(Another silence.) 

Henry, (hrealcing out) And the best of it is if 
this story ever gets about, you'll get all the sympathy ! 
Ne'er-do-wells always do. The Governor and I would 
be despised as a couple of stony-hearted wretches with 
no bowels of compassion who grudge9 money to a 
necessitous brother while you would be called a light- 
hearted devil-may-care chap who is nobody's enemy 
but his own ! 

Eustace. Well, I think I'd change places with 
you. After all, you're pretty comfortable here. And 
you'll marry Stella, damn you. 

(Henry is silent. Pause.) 

(Enter Mr. Jackson with cheque in his hand.) 

Mr. Jackson. Here's your cheque. 

Eustace, (looks at it.) Fours into two hundred 
and fifty. Sixty-two pounds, ten. Thanks, father. 
(holds out hand) Good-bye. 

(Mr. Jackson hesitates.) 

You may as well. After all I'm your son. And if 
I'm a sweep, it's your fault ! 



THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. 101 

Mr. Jackson, {takes his hand) Good-bye. {hes- 
itates — moves to -fireplace) 

(Eustace turns to go.) 

You may write occasionally, just to let us know how 
you are. 

Eustace. {smiles grimly. Then hands hach 
cheque) Make it three hundred, father — and I won't 
write. 

(Mr. Jackson is about to protest angrily, then 
recognising the uselessness of that proceeding, says 
nothing, hut waves cheque contemptuously away. 
Eustace still smiling, pockets it.) 

No ? Well have it your own way. Good-bye. Good- 
bye, Henry, {nods to him without offering to shake 
hands) 

{Exit L. Mr. Jackson turns toward fireplace and 
leans head on mantelpiece with a sigh.) 

Curtain. 



(Frt'nch\<: Standard Drama Continued from zd page of Cover.) 



VOL. XLI. 


VOL. XLIV. 


VOL. XLVIL 


VOL. L. 


821 The Pirate's Utiry 


345 Drunkard's Doom 


369 Saratoga 


393 Fine Feathers 


3'2'i The Chartoal Kuruer 


;!46 Chimney Corner 


3-y Never Too I,ale to Mend 


394 Prompter's Box 
3S5 Iron Master 


■in AJelgitha 


j47 Fifteii! Years of R Drunk- 


371 Lily of France 


3--'4 Sf nor Valiente 


.m JNo Thoroughfare | ard's 
■■'A'i Peep 0' Day |_Life 


372 Led Astray 


396 Engaged 


3'25 Forest Rose 


:i7.i Henry V 


97 Pygmalion 4 Oalatoa 


3SS Duke's Daughter 


:f50 Everybody's Friend 


374 I'nequal Match 


398 Leah 


3i'1 Camilla's Husband 


:iftl Gen. Grant 


o7.', May or Dolly's Delusion 


:i99 Scrap of Pjiper 


82b Pur* <iold 


352 Kathleen Mavourneen 


376 AUatoona 


400 Lost in LondoB 


VOL. XLU. 


VOL. XLV. 


VOL. XLVIIL 


VOL. LL 


329 Ticket of T^^ave Man 


3.13 Nick Whiffles 


377 Enoch Arden 


101 Octoroon 


330 Fooi'a Revenge 


:i64 Fruits of the Wine Cup 


378 Under the Gas Light 


402 Confederate Spy 


3:!1 O'.Neil the Great 


ihh Drunkard's Warning 


379 Daniel Rochat 


403 Mariner's Returm 


33i Handv Andy 


■\f>f, Temperance Doctor 


380 Caste 


404 Ruined by Drink 


333 Pirate of the Islea 


;i5" Aunt Dinah 


381 School 


405 Dreams 


334 Kanohon 


.i.W Widow Freeheart 


382 Home 


406 M. P. 


335 Little Barefcot 


■.m Fron Frou 


383 David Garrick 


407 War 


336 Wild Irish Giri 


libt' Long Strike 


;i84 Ours 


408 Birth 


VOL. XLHL 


VOL. XLVL 


VOL. XLIX. 


VOL. LU. 


337 Pearl of Savoy 


■Ml Lancers 


:i8Fi Social Glass 


409 Nightingale 


338 Dead Heart 


Mi Lurille 


:W6 Daniel Druce 


410 Progress 


339 Ten Nights in a Bar-room 
34U DunibBoyofManohester 


3b3 Randall's Thumb 


:;87 Tw.> Rnse-s 


411 Play 


364 Wicked World 


:!88 Adrieniie 


412 Miiinight Charge 


341 Belphegoi-theJVlounteb'k 


365 Two Orphans 


,i89 The Bidis 


413 Confidential Clerk 


3-12 Cricket on ths Hearth 


:;66 Colleen Bawn 


.m Uncle 


414 Snowball 


343 Printer's Devi! 


367 'Twixt Axe and Crown 


.',91 Courtship 


415 Our Regiment 


344 Meg's Diversiou 


:-iSS Lady Clancarthy 


392 Not Such a Fool 


416 Married for Money 
Hamlet in Three Act* 
Guttle & Gulpit 



FRENCH'S INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHTED EDITION 
OF THE WORKS OF THE BEST AUTHORS. 

The following very successful plays have just been issued at 25 cents per copy. 



A PAIR OF SPECTACLES. Comedy in 3 Acts 
by Sydney Grundy, author of "Sowing the Wind," 
Ac. 8 male, 3 female characters. 

A FOOL'S PARADISE. An original play In 3 
Acts by Sydnky Grunty, author of '-Sowing the 
Wind,'" Ac. 5 male, 4 female characters. 

THE SILVER SHIELD. An original comedy in 
,^ Act? by Sydnky Grundy, author of ''Sowing the 
Wind," Ac. 5 male, 3 female characters. 



THE GLASS OP FASHION". 

cdy in 4 Acts by Sypnkv Grundy, 
the Wind," Ac. 6 m 



male characters. 



iginal com- 

" " Sowing 



Farcical comedy in 3 Acts by J. 
NviLLE Fenn. 6 male, 4 female 



THE BALLOON. 

H. Darni.ky and M 

characters. 
MISS CLEOPATRA. Farce in 3 Acts by Arthur 

Shiklky. 7 male, 3 female characters. 
SIX PERSONS. Comedy Act by I. Zanowill. 

1 male, 1 female character. 
FASHIONABLE INTELLIGENCE. Comedi- 
etta in I Act by Percy FKNUiLL. 1 male, 1 female 

character. 
HIGHLAND LEGACY. Comedy in 1 Act by 

Brandon Thomas, author of "Charley's Aunt." 

5 male, 2 female characters. 



Contents of Catalogue which is sent Free. 



Amatenr Drama 

Amateur Operas 

Articles Needed by Amateurs 

Art of Scene Painting 

Baker's Reading Club 

Beards, W^hiskers, Mustaches, etc. 

Bound Sets of Plavs 

Bulwer Lytton's Plays 

Burlesque Dramas 

Burnt Cork 

Cabman's Striry 

Carnival of Authors 

Charade Plavs 

Children's Plays 

Comic Dramas for Male Characters 

only 
Costume Books 
Crape FLair 
Cumberland Edition 
Darkev Dramas 
T)r.amas for Boys 
Drawing-room Monologues 
Elocution, Reciters and Speakers 
Etrtopian Dramas 



Evening's Entertainment 

Fairy and Home Plays 

French's Costumes 

French's Editions 

French's Italian Operas 

French's Parlor Comedies 

French's Standard and Minor Drama 

French's Standard and Minor Drama, 

bound 
French's Scenes for Amateurs 
Frobisher's Popular Recitals 
Grand Army Dramas 
Guide Books for Amateurs 
Guide to Selecting Pliiys 
Hints on Costumes 
Home Plavs for Ladies 
Irish Plays 
Irving's Plays 
.luvenile Plays 
Make-Up Book 
Make-Up Box 
Mock trial 

Mrs. Jarley's Wax Works 
New Plays 



New Recitation Books 

Nigtrer Jokes and Stump Speeches 

Parlor Magic 

Parlor Pantomimes 

Pieces of Pleasantry 

Poems for Recitations 

Plays for Male Characters »a!y 

Round Games 

Scenery 

Scriptural and Historical Dramaa 

Sessation Dramas 

Serio-Comic Dramas 

Shadow Pantomimes 

Shakespeare's Plays for Amateurs 

.Shakespeare'.* Plays 

Stanley's Dwarfs 

Spirit GiMii 

Tableaux Vivants 

Talma Actor's Art 

Temperance Plays 

Vocal Music of Shakespeare's Plays 

Webster's Acting Editioa 

Wigs, etci 



(French's Minor Drama Continued from 4th pa<^e of Cover.) 



-r:L. XLt. 

321 Adventures of a Lov« 

322 Oft Child [Lettei 

323 Court Cards 

324 Cox and Box 

325 Forty Winks 

396 Wonderful Woman 

397 Curious Case 

328 Tweedleton'» Tail Coat 



VOL. XLIL 
.329 As Like as Two Peas 

330 Presumptive Evidence 

331 Happy Band 

332 Pinafore 

333 Mock Trial 

3;J4 My Uncle's Will 

335 Happy Pair 

336 My T^irn Next 



VOL. XLIH. 

337 Sun.set 

338 For Haifa Millioa 

339 C'tble Car 

340 Early Bird 
.341 Alumni Play 

342 Show of Hands 

343 Barbara 

344 Who's Who 



VOL. XLIV. 
:?46 W^ho's To Win Hia 
■U6 Which It Which 
347 Cup of Tea 
.348 Sarah's Young Maa 

349 Hearts 

350 In Honor Bound (Law 

351 Freexing a Mothar-la- 
J52 My Lord iu LUery 



SAMUEL FRENCH, 26 West 22d St., New York City. 



^ff" N^Y »nd Explicit Descriptive Catalogue Mailed Free on Request. 



FRENCH'S MINOR DRAMA. 

Price 1 5 Cents each.-E LIBRPRY OF CONGRESS 



[per 
: Pep 



VOL. I. 

1 Tke Irish Attorney 

2 Boot* !it tlie Swan 

3 How U> Pay the Rent 

4 The I»an of a LoYer 
6 The Uuiid Shot 

6 His Ijist l.e^ 

7 The IriYisible Prince 

8 The UoMeu Kaniier 

VOL. U. 

9 Pride or the Market 

10 Used Up 

11 The Irish Tat-.r 

12 The Barrack R'om 

13 Luke the La 'orer 

14 Beauty ami the Beast 

15 St. Piitriik'» h:ve 

16 Captain of the Watch 

VOU III 

17 The Se.. ret 

18 White Horse of the 

19 The Jacobite 

20 The Bottle 

21 Box anil Cor 

22 Baiiihoozli.ifT 

23 Widow's Victiia 

24 Robert iVl icaire 

VOU IV. 

25 Sirret Service 
28 OriiMbiis 

27 Irish Li .n 

28 Mii<l.)f Croixsy 

29 The Old Uuard 

30 Raislnjj the Wind 

31 Sla-iher And Crasher 

32 Naval K icige'uents 

VOL. V. 

33 Cock Dies III Call lorn 

34 Who S|)«ak8 Kirit 
.'i6 Bonbistes Kiirioso 
38 Miclieih Travestie 

37 Irish A iib-usidor 

38 Dttli.Tate (Ground 

39 Thrt W,?athercook 
iO All tliat (ilitters 

VOL. VI. 
41 Griinshaw, Bajjsha- 

Bradshaw 
<2 Rouj^h DiainDiid 
»3 Bloomer (,'ostume 
14 Two Bounyca-tles 
i.i B )rn to Qood Luck 
lb Kiss In the Dark [jurer 
47 'TwDuld Puzzle a Con- 
18 Kill or Cnre 

VOL. VIF. 

49 Box and Cox Married and 

50 St. Cupid [Settled 

51 Oo-to-bed Tom 

52 The Lawyers 

53 .Tack Sheppard 

54 The Toodles 
56ThH M.il.cap 

56 Ladie? Beware 

VOL. vrii. 

57 Morninz Call 

.S8 Poppin- the Qiiestiot. 
.59 Deaf -xs a PoU 

60 New b'ootinin 

61 Pleasant Ni'isthhor 

62 Paddy the Piper 

63 Brian O'Linn 

64 Irish A<isuranoe 

VOL. IX. 
85 Teirtptation 

66 Paddv Carey 

67 Two Grejfories 

68 King Charming 

69 Po-cft-hon-tas 

70 Clockmaker's H:it 

71 Married Rake 

72 Love and Murder 

VOL. X. 

73 Ireland and America 

74 Pretty Piece of Busioess 

75 IrUh Broom-maker 

7« To Paris and Back for 
Five Pounds 

77 That Blessed Baby 

78 Our «al 

79 Swiss Cnttajre 

80 Young Widow 



[Hold 
is Not 



and 



VOL. Xi. 

81 0'FI:iDiiigiin and the Fal 

82 Irish Post [riei 

83 My Neighbor's Wife 

84 Irish Ti)?er 

85 P. P., or Man and Tiger 
S6 To Oblige Benson 

87 State Secrets 

88 Irish Vankee 
VOL. XIl. 

89 A Good Fellow 

90 Cherry and Fair Star 

91 Gale fereezely 

92 Our Jemimy 

93 Miller's Maid 

94 Awkward Arrival 

95 Crosiing the Line 

96 Conjuaral Lesson 
VOL. XIII. 

97 My Wife's -Mirror 

98 Lite in New York 

99 Middy Ashore 
00 Crown Prince 

101 Two Queens 

02 Thumping Legacy 

1)3 Unfiuished 'i-Uletn an 
104 House Dog 

VOL. XIV, 

05 The De n'>n Lover 

OB Matri-n >ny 

07 In and Ontof Pl:ice 
108 I Dine with .My .Viother 

09 Hi-a-wa-tha 

10 Andv Blake 

11 Love" in '76 J'''"' 
Il2Ro:ivance under Diracul- 

VOL. XV. 
13 One Coat f.r J Suits 
114 A Decided Case 
115D:inghter [no ritv 

16 No; or, tjie Glori .us Mi- 

17 Coroner's Inquisition 

18 L)ve in Hu iiole Liie 

19 Family .lars 

120 t'ersonation 
VOL. XVI. 

121 Children in tlie Wiod 
22 Winning a Huiband 

123 Dav After the Fair 

24 Maki Your Wills 

25 Rendezvous 
126 My Wife's Husbtnd 

27 Monsieur Tonson 

28 Illustrious Stranger 
VOL. XV(I. 

29 Mi3chief-\laking[Mi ties 

30 A Live Woman in the 
131 The Corsair 
l32Shylock 

33 Spoiled Child 

34 Kvil Eye 

35 Nothing to V,irse 

36 Wanted a Widow 
VOL. XVTII. 

137 Lottery Ticket 

138 Fortune's Frolic 

139 Ij hi Jaalonst 

140 Married Bachelor 
Ul Husband at Sight 

142 Irishman in London 

143 Ani na! Magnetism 

144 Highways and By-W ay 
VOL. XIX. 

145 Columbus 

146 Harlequin Bluebeard 

147 Ladies at Home 

148 Phenomenon in s Smock 
Frock 

149 Comedy and Tragedy 

150 Opposite Meighbors 

151 Dutchman's Ghost 

152 Persecuted Ontchman 
VOL. XX. y 

153 Musard Ball 
1.S4 Great Tragic Revival 

155 High Low Jack A (Janie 

156 A Gentleman from I 

157 Tom and Jerry [land 

158 Village Lawyer 

159 Captain's not A-mIss 
60 Amateurs and Actors 




014 432 997 1 



[Puil 
Icing 



169 Yankee Peduler 

170 Hir.iin Hireout 

171 Double-Bedded Room 

172 The Drama Defended 

173 Vermont Wool Dealer 

174 Khenezer Venture [ter 

175 Principles from Cbarac- 

176 Lady of the Lake (Trav> 

VOL. XX 11 1. 

177 Mad Dogs 

178 Birney tlie Baron 

179 Swiss Swains 

180 Bachelor's Bedroom 
IHI A Rolmd for an Oliver 

182 More Blvnders than One 

183 Dumb Belle 
lh4 Limerick boy 

VOL. XXIV. 

185 Nature and Philosophy 

186 Teddy the Tiler 

187 Sueilre Bridegroom 

188 Matteo Falcone 

189 Jenny Lind 

190 Two Buzzards 

191 Happy Man 

192 Betsy Baker 

VOL. XXV. 

193 No, 1 Round the Corner 

194 Teddy Roe 

195 /Object of Int-rest 
1 '6 My Fellow Clerk 
19" B«ngal Tiger 

1 <8 Laughing Hvena 

199 The Victor Vanquished 
•jOO Our Wife 

VOL. XXVI. 

201 My Husband's Mirror 

202 Yankee Land 

203 Norah Creina 

204 Good for Nothing 
'J05 The First Night 
206 The Kton Boy 

•J07 Wandering Minstrel 

208 Wanted, 1000 Milliners 

VOL. XXVII. 

209 Poor Pilcoddy 

210 The Mummy [Glasses 

211 Don't Forg"t your Opera 

212 Love in Livery 

213 Anthony and Cleop atra 
vUTrying It On 

2)5 Stage Struck Vankee 

216 Young Wife A Old Um- 

brella 

VOL. xxvrn. 

217 Crinoline 

218 A Family Failing 

219 Adopted'f'hild 

220 Turned H^ads 

■.'21 A Match in the DarV 

222 Advice to Husbands 

223 Siamese Twin? 

224 Sent to the Tower 

VOL. XXIX. 
•'25 Somebodv Flse 

2 6 lAdies' B"attle 
927 frt of Acting 

228 The Ladv of the Lions 

229 The Rights of Man 
2.30 Mv Husband's Ghost 
231 Two Can Play at that 

Game 
2.32 Fighting by Proxy 
VOL. XXX. 

233 Unprotected Female 

234 Pet of the Petticoats 

235 Forty and Fifty [book 

236 Who Stole the Pocket- 

237 My Son Diana [sion 

2.38 Unwarrantable Intru- 

2.39 Mr. and Mrs. White 
240 A Quiet Family 



(French's Minor Drama Continued on ^d page o/Covfr.) 



249 Dr. Dil worth 

250 Out to Nurse 

251 A Lucky Hit 
■.'52 The Dowager 

253 Metainora (Bnrlei.que) 

254 Dreams of Delusion 

255 The Shaker Lovers 

256 TickUah Times 

VOL. xxxin. 

■.'57 20 Minutes with a Tiger 

258 Miralda; or, the Justice 

of Tacon 

259 A Soldier's Courtship 

260 Servants by I/egacy 

261 Dying for Love 

262 Alaniiing Sacrifice 

263 Valrt de Shhin 

264 Nichola* Nickleby 

VOL. XXXlV. 

265 The Last of the Pigtails 

266 King Rene's Daughter 

267 Th* Grotto Nymph 

268 A Devilish Good Joke 

269 A Twice T»id Tale 

270 Pas de Fascination 
■(71 Hevolutionary Soldier 

272 A Man Without a Head 

VOL. XXXV. 

273 The Olio, -Part I 
214 T.'ie Olio, Part 2 

275 The Olio, Part 3 [ter 

276 The Trnmpel.-r's Daugh- 

277 Seeing Warren 

V78 Green Mountain Boy 

279 That Note 

280 Tom Noddy's Secret 

VOL. XXXVI. 

281 Shocking Events 

282 A Regular Fix 

283 Dick Turpin 

284 Young Scnrnp 

285 Young Actress 
2K6 Call at No. 1-7 

287 One Touch ot Nature 

288 Two B'hoys 

VOL. XXXVIF. 

289 All the World's a Stage 

290 Quash, or Nigger Prac- 
29! Turn Him Out [tice 
292 Pretty Girls of Stillborg 
■393 Angel of the Attic 

294 CircumstanoesalterCaaei 

295 Ratty O'Sheal 

296 A Supper In Dixie 

VOL. xxxvriL 

W Ici on Parle Francais 

298 Who Killed Cock Robin 

299 Declaration of Indeiiend- 

300 Heads or Tails [ence 

301 Oh-tinate Family 

302 Mv Aunt 

303 That Rasral Pat 
•!04 Don Paddy de Bazsn 

VOL. XXXIX. [ture 
.305 Too Much for Good Na- 

306 Cure for the Fidgets 

307 Jack's the Lad 

308 Much Ado AboutNothing 

309 Artful D<i<leer 

310 Winning Hazard 

311 Day's Fishing [Ac. 

312 Dili von ever send your, 

VOL. XL. 

313 An Irishman's Maneuver 

314 Cousin Fnnnie 

315 'Til the Darkest Hour be- 

316 Masquerade [fore Dawn 

317 Crowding the Seatou 

318 Good Niirht's Rest 

319 Man with theOarpetBag 
.320 Terrible Tinker 



SAMUEL FRENCH 26 West 22d Street, New York City. 

New and Explicit Descriptive Catalogfue Mailed Free on Request. 



